Swans
This reading profile brings together 4 source-linked articles that reference swans.
Explore Fauna’s source-checked field guides and research articles covering swans, or search the species catalog below for individual species profiles.Source-linked reading
- Field guideCute but dangerous: animals not to approachWanting to touch a wild animal is not foolishness; it is a wired response to a set of physical features, and it fires whether or not the animal is safe. The animals below are all things people reach for. Their defences run from a venomous ankle spur to a virus with an 80 per cent untreated fatality rate, and almost none of them are visible until they are used.
- Field guideHow birds flyA flying bird redirects air with a wing whose camber, angle, area, and motion continually change. The resulting aerodynamic force can be oriented upward for weight support or forward for propulsion; muscles, joints, feathers, tail, and sensory feedback tune each wingbeat.
- Field guideHow birds navigate during migrationMigration requires both a heading and a way to relate the bird's current position to a destination. Different birds combine inherited programs, learned landmarks, and several sensory cues, with no single mechanism explaining every journey.
- Field guideWhy birds moltA mature feather cannot heal itself. Molt replaces worn feathers, but birds do it on schedules that protect flight and balance the other demands of breeding, migration, and survival.