Black swan

Cygnus atratus · The black swan is a large black-feathered waterbird with a red bill that breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest of Australia.

Taxonomy

Where it lives

Wetlands of southwestern and eastern Australia; introduced to New Zealand.

Fun facts

• After breeding, a black swan loses all its flight feathers at once and cannot fly for about a month.
• Black swans follow the rain, travelling into dry central Australia to nest and raise their young when rain falls there.
• If an egg rolls out of the nest, both male and female black swans use their necks to retrieve it, while in other swan species only the female does.
• Black swans wait until the last egg is laid before they start incubating, so all the chicks hatch around the same time.

Play it

The Black swan was the creature in Birder on October 24, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

Play today's creature or replay a past daily

Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).