2011 Photo Contest, Nature, 2nd prize

Swan Serenade

Photographer

Stefano Unterthiner

14 February, 2010

Whooper swans are a northern hemisphere swan, with a range from Iceland to beyond Japan.

About the photographer

Stefano Unterthiner

Growing up in a small mountain village in northwest Italy, Stefano Unterthiner spent his early years photographing in the Gran Paradiso National Park and trekking around the beau...

Background story

Hokkaido, Japan Swans walk on a frozen Lake Kussharo. The warm waters of the volcanic lake are usually slow to ice over, making it a good wintering habitat. Whooper swans are a northern hemisphere swan, with a range from Iceland to beyond Japan. They breed on islands and beside lakes and slow-flowing rivers from mid-May, and also frequently inhabit estuaries, marshes and floodplains. Their diet consists predominantly of leaves, stems and roots of aquatic plants. Around October, the swans fly to more temperate areas for winter. One 1,280-kilometer-long migration route, from Iceland to Ireland, is possibly the longest sea crossing by any swan species.

Photo credit:
for National Geographic magazine

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/640 s
Focal length
24 mm
F-Stop
f/14
ISO
1000
Camera
Nikon D700

This image is collected in