Mute Swan
Cygnus olor

Here is the swan of legend, with gracefully curved neck, and wings arched over the back in display. The Mute Swan is one of three swan species in British Columbia, but unlike the Tundra Swan and the Trumpeter Swan, it has been introduced to North America. The species is native to Eurasia; it is said that all the Mute Swans in North America can trace their lineage to the Royal Swannery in England.

The species survives in a feral state only on southern Vancouver Island; Mute Swans elsewhere in the province are either captive birds, or escapes. Although charismatically beautiful, they can have rather nasty manners towards other native waterfowl. A male Mute Swan was removed from the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary in Victoria because of his aggressiveness. The lake, incidentally, was named not for the birds, but for an early surveyor named James Swan.

The Mute Swan almost lives up to its name; it produces little more than hissing sounds. Its wild cousins are more vocal, with the Tundra Swan giving a high whistling call, and the Trumpeter Swan a rich, sonorous bugling. Both of these species hold their necks much straighter, and neither has the distinctive pink knob on the bill of the Mute Swan.