-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
How to sex a swan? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ukpbz
- Start date
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
No, swan ringers say it has to be done by cloacal examination. Males tend to have a larger knob than females, but there is some overlap, so a small-knobbed male paired with a large-knobbed female would appear the 'wrong way round'.
Swannery Steve
Well-known member
Hi Paul,
I think the first pic is a cob (male) and the second a pen (female), although they are unusually very similar! Generally cobs have larger berries ('bulbs') but some pens can closely match them. Cobs also tend to be slightly bigger, bulkier and heavier birds than pens and also tend to have deeper orange/red bills. On odd occasions though, as in your case, they can be tricky to separate. Luckily, at The Swannery we tend to vent sex the swans as cygnets so we simply need to read their rings to confirm their sex when they reach maturity but otherwise there is always the odd pair that we have to study for awhile before we are certain. Just to confuse the issue though we do occasionally get male/male pairs, although oddly they never lay any eggs!
Hope this helps,
Steve.
I think the first pic is a cob (male) and the second a pen (female), although they are unusually very similar! Generally cobs have larger berries ('bulbs') but some pens can closely match them. Cobs also tend to be slightly bigger, bulkier and heavier birds than pens and also tend to have deeper orange/red bills. On odd occasions though, as in your case, they can be tricky to separate. Luckily, at The Swannery we tend to vent sex the swans as cygnets so we simply need to read their rings to confirm their sex when they reach maturity but otherwise there is always the odd pair that we have to study for awhile before we are certain. Just to confuse the issue though we do occasionally get male/male pairs, although oddly they never lay any eggs!
Hope this helps,
Steve.
Thanks all,
The long story is, we had a mating pair here for many years. Sadly at the end of summer last, the male died. The female hung in until one day these 2 turned up. Over a month or so they chased her away. One is ringed as a male, the other has no ring. The first swan has a thicker neck than the second but that is the only real difference I can see. None have shown much aggression since the old pen left. Well I guess we will have to see if they start nesting
Be interesting to see if they use the old pairs place for nesting.
Thanks
The long story is, we had a mating pair here for many years. Sadly at the end of summer last, the male died. The female hung in until one day these 2 turned up. Over a month or so they chased her away. One is ringed as a male, the other has no ring. The first swan has a thicker neck than the second but that is the only real difference I can see. None have shown much aggression since the old pen left. Well I guess we will have to see if they start nesting
Be interesting to see if they use the old pairs place for nesting.
Thanks
I would suspect same sex pairing with lone pairs is uncommon , but at Abotsbury Swannery where Steve is it may well be more frequent as there are large numbers of swans living very close togeather the normal strict large territories mute swans have breaks down.
Last edited:
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
There was an incestuous lesbian pair in my local park (mother + daughter) in my local park a while back. They laid eggs, which of course didn't hatch.
Similar threads
