| This familiar bird of our waterways and rivers can also be
found on estuaries and sheltered parts of the coast. Mostly silent it is
anything but mute when angry, as anyone who has been confronted with an
angry hissing swan can testify. It is a large, white waterbird weighing
up to 12kg with a maximum wingspan of 240cm and a maximum length of 155cm.
Mute Swans have red bills with a black knob which is larger in the male
than in the female. It eats water plants, insects and snails with its long,
slender neck allowing it to reach plants a metre under the water. The Cygnets
start off grey before turning into brown juvenile birds. |
