Black SwanScientific name: Cygnus atratus
Meaning of name: Cygnus is a Latin word meaning swan. Atratus is a Latin word meaning blackened.
Aboriginal name: Koltjak (call’jack).
Distribution: Widespread across Australian where water available.
Description: Up to 140cm long with a 200cm wingspan.
Notes: The furthest distance recorded by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme for this species of bird to travel is 930km. The oldest bird recorded was still alive when its band was read in December 1994, 24 years 8.6 months after being banded (information as at 13 June 2012).
The photographs for this species were not taken in the reserves of interest to the FQPB.
References: What Bird is That? Neville W Cayley. 1978
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Various contributors.
Aboriginal names of bird species in south-west Western Australia, with suggestions for their adoption into common usage. Ian Abbott. 2009. Conservation Science Western Australia Journal. Volume 7 No 2 http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/about-us/science-and-research/76-publications-and-resources/103-conservation-science-wa-journal
Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/science/abbbs/abbbs-search.html
Photograph courtesy of P. Agar.
This pair of Black Swans were pulling vegetation from the bottom of the lake with which to feed their six cygnets.
These cygnets are only a few days old.
