{"id":272097,"date":"2026-02-07T08:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T08:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272097\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T08:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T08:58:13","slug":"it-can-make-the-hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272097\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you hear whooper swans calling to each other on a lake, they might well remind you of a brass band tuning up.<\/p>\n<p>Their performance is not exactly musical! But it\u2019s a deeply resonant sound all the same, which can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.<\/p>\n<p>The atmospheric bugling of whooper swans is very much a winter sound in a lot of Europe, where the species only occurs between October and April.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many of these wintering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/wildlife\/birds\/guide-to-britains-swans-species-identification-folklore-and-where-to-see-them\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">swans<\/a> head to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/go-outdoors\/wildfowl-and-wetlands-trust-reserves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> wetland nature reserves<\/a>, such as those of the Wildfowl &amp; Wetlands Trust in Britain, where their numbers are now booming.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Whooper swans at Martin Mere in Lancashire, England. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>When spring comes, the swans migrate north again to breed on boggy lakes, mainly in Iceland and the taiga zone of Scandinavia and Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Whooper swans have an eye-catching patch of sunflower yellow on their beaks. They can easily be confused with tundra, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/birds\/facts-about-bewicks-swans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bewick\u2019s<\/a>, swans, which likewise have bright yellow beaks and migrate to Europe in winter. However, that Arctic-breeding species has become much less common in Britain in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>A small flock of whooper swans in L\u00f3nsfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, East Iceland. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>Top image: Whooper swans. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>More amazing bird stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you hear whooper swans calling to each other on a lake, they might well remind you of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-272097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}