Tundra Swan

by Lillian

    Bids have been on this earth for one million years.  Every bird have wings and feathers.  They also have two legs and lay hard shelled eggs. Most birds have better sight than other animals and people.  Did you know that all birds don't fly, like the penguin and ostrich.  Would you believe that a bat is not a bird.  Bats don't have feathers.  One of the feathers are the flight feathers.  The flight feathers help the birds by keeping the bird steady while they are flying.  There are also the contour feathers.  but the one the birds need the most are the down feathers.  The down feathers give the  birds it's shape, color and warmth.  Did you know that birds don't have gizzards but other creatures do not.  Gizzards are rocks that the bird  swallows to help digest their food.

   The color of the tundra swan is completely white The head is offten rusty color from ferrouse minerals and marsh soils during feeding .  When the tundra swan is  a baby it is called a crescent also it is gray when it is a baby.  The tundra swan also has a yellow or orange spot  on their bill.  The bill is competely black.  Also the feet and legs are black unlike most birds.  Tundra swans have long necks to help them garb their food. The tundra swan is a very big bird.  The length of the tundra swan is 36 inches.  The wing span of the tundra swan is 85 inches.  The wing beat of the tundra swan is160 per minute.  Now that is pretty cool. Did you know that the tundra swan is sometimes called the tundra whistling swan.  The tundra swan has that name because the tundra swan has a high pitch voice that can be heard over 8 kilometers.  Here take a look.

    The tundra swan has a big nest it is six to 12 feet in diameter, and one or two feet deep.  The tundra swan has up to seven eggs in five days.  The babbies can fly in 7-14weeks of birth.   The tundra swan mainly eats vegetation. Such as seeds, grasses, waste corn or grain and some times roots.  They even sometimes eat fish eggs.

    Did you know that the tundra swan is alone until paired with a mate.  Once the tundra swan is paired with a mate they will stay together forever. They mate as young as two years old.  

    I hope  you learned more about the tundra swan. Oh and one more thing the tundra swan has up to 25,000 feathers.