Black Swan

Cygnus atratus

Some of you may have been lucky enough to spot an unusual visitor to our Refuge, a Black Swan. The Black Swan featured in these photos has been spotted both this November and December of this year, and in 2018. Black Swans are native to Australia, where their discovery rocked the minds of ornithologists from Europe at the time, who thought all swans were white.

This particular swan has been identified as one that grew up on a nearby Vancouver, WA farm with other Black Swans. These swans were once known to not migrate, but recent studies have shown their more nomadic side, though not as far as across oceans, which helps in the identification since one would have no way of just showing up here otherwise. Like the Mandarin Ducks spotted in Portland, they came from somewhere humans were raising them, and luckily seem to have taken to life in the wild just fine. Many Black Swans are kept as ornamental pets in other European countries like Germany and China.

The owner of this bird spends a lot of time letting people know that this one is hers and not the escaped rare one from a nearby sanctuary. This particular swan seems to tolerate the cooler temperatures just fine. The now-more-nomadic Black Swans don’t seem to have a migratory pattern, instead responding to drought or rainfall, or following the other species, as this one seems to do.

In 1697 Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh was in Australia when he first discovered black swans. Vlamingh was the first European to officially arrive in Perth, Western Australia, and

map parts of the Australian western coast. He named the Swan River Colony, after the discovery. Vlamingh captured a few of the black swans to deliver to Europe.

The Black swans are the official birds of Western Australia and are featured on the flag and in the coat of arms. As their name suggests, these birds are mostly black, with white flight feathers and a red beak that has a white bar and tip. Their legs are grey-ish black. Most swans tend to breed within their species, but will go outside occasionally to nearby species-types, so there have been reports of Mute Swans and Black Swans mating, producing a grey/mottled mute swan.

Black Swans mate for life. In their natural habitats, they build their nests from the months of February to September. Most swan species will not allow other swans into their territory during breeding season. The Black Swan is an exception, in that they often build nest colonies. Both the male and female build the nest together. The eggs are greenish-white in color and are incubated by the male and female for thirty-five to forty days.

The cygnets sometimes ride on their parents back for trips in deeper water. Chicks are able to feed themselves as soon as they hatch. Cygnets stay with their parents for six to nine months, until they are ready to find their own territory.

The Noongar People of the South-West of Australia call the black swan Kooldjak along the West and South-West coast, Gooldjak in the South East and it is sometimes referred to as maali in language schools. The website of the Premier of Western Australia refers to Noongar lore of how the ancestors of the Noongar people were once Black Swans who became men.

Did you know? Like unicorns and purple dinosaurs, Black Swans seemed so impossible that their name became synonymous with incredible ideas? Those European explorers were so shocked to find black swans, that “Black Swan” became an example of something unpredicted or unprecedented.