It is mainly a winter visitor to the UK from Iceland, although a small number of pairs nest in the north. The estuaries and wetland it visits on migration and for winter roosts need protection. Its winter population and small breeding numbers make it an Amber List species.

In the spring, whooper swans will fly, non-stop, from Scotland to Iceland. During this migration, they may travel at very high altitudes; a pilot flying at 8,000 metres once reported seeing a flock of swans that were thought to be whoopers.

Bewick's swan migration tracks winter 2023-24 from breeding grounds to wintering sites, by Projekt Zwergschwan. The digital maps clearly illustrate the migratory trends of the Bewick’s swan population as well as showing the movement of individuals in the Ouse Washes area.

Whooper swans have a deep honking call that resembles geese and, despite their size, are powerful fliers. Whooper swans can migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles to their wintering sites in southern Europe and eastern Asia. They breed in the subarctic Eurosiberia, further south than Bewicks in the taiga zone.

Every winter thousands of Whooper Swans from Iceland and Bewick’s Swans from Arctic Russia migrate into UK and Ireland to spend the winter here. Telling these two black and yellow-billed swans apart can be tricky.