Mute Swan

by Ronald Smits

The mute swan (Cygnus olor) is a kind of swan. It is a familiar appearance in parks and on lakes. It mainly lives from aquatic plants, where it grows its long neck to the ground, but it also eats grass. The mute swan can reach a wingspan of 2.40 meters and is therefore the largest water bird. It measures 140 to 160 cm.[2] With its long neck it can reach far under water. At 10 to 12 kg, the Mute Swan is one of the heaviest flying animals. It is about the same size as the wild swan, but much larger than the small swan. The mute swan is white and has an orange-red beak. The head and neck have a pale yellow shine. The unfeathered skin on the root of the beak and around the eye, under the forehead lump, is black. The frontal tubercle is very conspicuous in males. Also the legs are black. The back line is strongly curved. The neck is almost always kept in a graceful S-shape. That neck has the largest number of cervical vertebrae of all birds (26). The head is always slightly bent down. The beak is relatively broad. There is little but clear sexual dimorphism (the male and female look almost the same). The male is larger, he also has a heavier neck. As already mentioned, the male has a lump above the beak. In spring that lump swells up and the beak gets redder.