Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Cygnus > Cygnus atratus

Cygnus atratus (Black Swan)

Synonyms: Anas atratus; Chenopsis atratus; Cygnus atractus

Wikipedia Abstract

The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand,but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes.
View Wikipedia Record: Cygnus atratus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
21
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 7.44589
EDGE Score: 2.13368
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [8]  6
Clutches / Year [2]  1
Fledging [2]  5 months 10 days
Incubation [7]  38 days
Mating Display [3]  Ground display
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [2]  40 years
Nocturnal [1]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [2]  4.1 feet (125 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, Coastal, Brackish Water
Wing Span [7]  5.904 feet (1.8 m)
Adult Weight [2]  12.456 lbs (5.65 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  258 grams
Female Weight [6]  11.244 lbs (5.10 kg)
Male Weight [6]  13.669 lbs (6.20 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [6]  21.6 %
Diet [4]  Herbivore
Diet - Plants [4]  100 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  100 %
Female Maturity [5]  2 years 3 months
Male Maturity [5]  2 years 3 months

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
New Zealand New Zealand No
Southwest Australia Australia No

Emblem of

Western Australia

Prey / Diet

Elodea densa (Brazilian waterweed)[7]
Ruppia megacarpa (Large-fruit seatassel)[7]
Vallisneria americana (Water Celery)[7]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Rhabdosargus sarba (Yellowfin bream)1

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 6Scott P, Wildfowl Trust. 1972. The swans. Boston (MA): Houghton Mifflin. 242 p.
♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 8Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 9Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 11Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0