Week-old whooper swan cygnets captured bickering on video in southern Finland

A brief but lively scuffle between week-old whooper swan cygnets was filmed early Saturday in Tuusula, southern Finland, according to a report by Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

Photographer Jukka Pihlainen recorded the interaction in Jokela at around 4 a.m., having arrived at the location at 3 a.m. to document the birds. He has observed and photographed the same swan family in the area for 12 years, ever since first spotting them walking through Jokela’s town centre in 2014.

The nine cygnets—an all-time high in Pihlainen’s years of observation—hatched one week ago, surpassing last year’s count of eight. Not all participated in the morning spat, which Pihlainen described as “squabbling.”

Whooper swans, Finland’s national bird, are a common sight in Jokela during summer and autumn, often moving between the town’s multiple ponds on foot. Pihlainen said he now awaits the cygnets’ first walking excursion, calling it his “event of the year.”