IRAN - colony of whooper swans (1 Viewer)

As you may know, weekend in Iran and some Islamic countries are Thursday and Friday. At Friday,We had a small trip to a artificial wetland. This shot had taken by my friend (Mr. Javad Dellpassand) in new habitat of swans.
Six years ago, a small colony of whooper swans (Max. 500 birds) had migrated to the Caspian south basin in a new habitat in SURKRUD rice farm. After that, population size increased every winter. On the other hand, some bird lovers start a new activity for feeding them because it seems swans are more than carrying capacity of mentioned habitat. Last year, it became about 10000 swans (more and less).
Actually, another group of specialist think people arrive in a non ecological manipulation by feeding them because they believe it maybe cause an artificial changes in flyway and something like that!

Please look at the image and if possible, kindly give me your opinion about diffident bill patterns.

P.S: most of swans population show left pattern and some of the are intermediate.

Salaam Mahmoud. Each Whooper Swan has an individual pattern of black and yellow on the bill so, with a bit of work, you should be able to identify birds / pairs / families as they return each winter. As Whooper Swans historically wintered along the coasts of the southern Caspian you are probably seeing a return to former numbers building up, and as there are fewer and fewer suitable sites, throughout their range, for them to gather in large numbers supplementary winter feeding, IMO, becomes necessary. There is also the added advantage that a large number of birds, such as Swans, in one place, can be used to educate people about conservation.

Chris

chris butterworth said:

Each Whooper Swan has an individual pattern of black and yellow on the bill so, with a bit of work, you should be able to identify birds / pairs / families as they return each winter.

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Thanks Chris!
I can not remember where I had seen a text about geographical cline evidence in whooper swans. I think it mentioned western population pattern is darker than east.

chris butterworth said:

There is also the added advantage that a large number of birds, such as Swans, in one place, can be used to educate people about conservation.
Chris

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Yes, I'm totally agree with educational opportunity which provided by swans now. You will see people payments for buying corn. Also, the image shows low distance between rice field and SURKHRUD city.

ghasempouri said:

Thanks Chris!
I can not remember where I had seen a text about geographical cline evidence in whooper swans. I think it mentioned western population pattern is darker than east.

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I think it's eastern Eurasian Tundra / Bewick's Swans that show a greater extent of black on the bill ( plus the bill tends to be larger and heavier looking ). As far as I know Whooper Swans from the east can show a bit more yellow but the bill patterns are so variable that it probably wouldn't be safe to try and determine eastern from western birds on that alone.

ghasempouti said:

Yes, I'm totally agree with educational opportunity which provided by swans now. You will see people payments for buying corn. Also, the image shows low distance between rice field and SURKHRUD city.

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A wonderful sight, so many wild birds being so close to a city. One more reason I've got to try and get to Iran sometime.

Chris