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Animal profile

Black Swan

Cygnus atratus

AvesLarge shallow wetlands, lakes, estuaries and flooded plainsLeast Concern

Field profile

The black swan is a large Australian waterbird with sooty-black plumage, a red bill and white flight feathers visible only when the wings open. It grazes on aquatic plants in shallow water and is highly nomadic, moving in response to rainfall and drought. It is the state emblem of Western Australia.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2025-04-22

Black Swan

One bird overturned a European certainty about swans

For centuries European writers used the black swan as shorthand for something that could not exist. Dutch navigators found flocks of them in Western Australia in 1697, and the phrase survived, inverted, as a name for the unforeseen event.

Read with evidence →

Black Swan | Daily Animal Facts