Atlantic Puffins nest in the North Atlantic. During the summer they can be found in Eastern Canada and Maine. The puffins pair up before they come onto the island from the ocean. Puffins generally have the same mates from year to year. Every spring their beaks and feet turn bright orange to signal their readiness to mate. The male puffin will flick his colorful beak up and back several times to attract the female. The male and female may perform billing, a behavior where they rub their beaks together. This display will usually draw a crowd of puffins to share in the excitement.

During the 19th century, the Atlantic Puffin population suffered major declines due to the over harvesting of eggs and predators such as rats. Initiatives such as Project Puffin have reintroduced the puffins to their former nesting grounds in Maine. To learn more, see http://www.projectpuffin.org/.

California Condors in the wild are apparently monogamous, and will stay with their breeding partner for years, if not for life. Courtship includes aerial displays by both sexes, and visits to potential nest sites within a given territory. Research suggests that female condors pick one nest site from several potential areas visited during courtship. Nest sites are usually located on ledges or in caves, and are not large or elaborate structures. In the 1980's one pair nested in a burned out section of a giant sequoia tree in California. Only one egg is laid. Although they do not nest in large colonies like some Old World vultures, California Condors are gregarious, and will gather at watering holes, roosting sites and at a carcass.

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Relatively long-lived, Whooping Cranes will pair with one partner for life. Pairs undertake majestic courtship displays, jumping high in the air with their heads pointing to the sky, and their wings extended.

Whooping Cranes are one of the most well known examples of conservation in action. Through decades of research and experimentation, the Whooping Crane has been brought back from the edge of extinction. From a low point of only 15 or 16 known individuals in the wild, there are now over 200 individuals living in a self-sustaining population which migrates between coastal Texas and the northern Northwest Territories in Canada. In 2001, efforts to establish a second migratory flock of Whooping Cranes in the wild got underway in Wisconsin. Using an ultralight aircraft, scientists led a group of captive-bred juvenile birds from Wisconsin to Florida. In the spring of 2002, these birds returned to Wisconsin on their own, in yet another remarkable success story for the species.

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Often mating for life, Trumpeter Swans pair off between 2 and 4 years of age and start breeding between age 4 and 7. Both sexes help build a nest that is surrounded by water, usually on a raised platform such as a beaver or muskrat den. The female lays and incubates 4 - 6, sometimes 9 eggs that hatch around 35 days later. Both parents care for their precocial young, which fledge 3 - 4 months later.

In the early 1900's the species was thought by many to be on its way to extinction as it was heavily hunted across its former range. In 1932 only 69 birds were known to be in existence though later (1954) a substantial breeding population of several thousand birds was discovered in Alaska. Today there are at least 16,000 Trumpeter Swans in the wild, most breeding in Alaska. There is a small population centered in Yellowstone National Park in the corner of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It has been reintroduced into former areas of its range and has begun to show up outside its current range.

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