Waterbirds · Netherlands
Mute Swan
Knobbelzwaan · Cygnus olor
Through my lens
Big, white and not really mute
The name is a little unfair. A Mute Swan hisses and snorts when it is annoyed, and its wings make a loud, throbbing hum in flight. It is one of the heaviest flying birds in Europe, white with an orange bill and a black knob at its base.
You find them on lakes, rivers, canals and town ponds, upending to reach water plants with that long neck. Pairs generally stay together, and in the breeding season they guard their patch of water fiercely.
The cygnets are grey-brown, and in their first weeks they sometimes ride on a parent's back.
Selected work
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