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Kaylarunya (Black Swans)

The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large, nomadic waterbird that is native to Australia. It is famous for its distinctive colouring, with its bright red beak and mostly black feathers. While the black swan looks almost entirely black whilst it swims, it also has white flight feathers that can be seen when it extends its wings.

Black swans inhabit large salt, brackish or fresh-water lakes, swamps and rivers that contain underwater and emergent vegetation.

With their key habitat being wetlands and macrophytes beds (areas of large plants that are rooted on the river-bed), black swans are found in large numbers around Bridgewater and Granton.

The Derwent Estuary not only provided an abundance of food resources for the Aboriginal people whose country included Timtumili Minanya, but supports the swans and their young with a rich diet of algae and plants.

Black swans are almost exclusively vegetarian, using their long necks to graze on water plants, algae and occasionally forage for pasture plants. The area around the Bridgewater Bridge contains shallow areas of water that feature aquatic and marshland plant life growing in the mud and sediment around the river’s edge.

The visitor can see what a perfect place the shoreline is for kaylarunya/black swans to nest and hatch their young.

Pairing for life, black swan ‘couples’ either live together in isolation, or in small colonies. Nests are built from reeds and grasses, usually either in deep or shallow water, on small islands, or close to the river’s edge. Breeding seasons vary throughout Australia. In Tasmania, the female lays up to ten eggs between June to September. The male and female take turns incubating their eggs, with fathers typically incubating the nest during the day and mothers incubating the nest overnight.

For more information visit https://www.derwentestuary.org.au/species/black-swan

Black Swans, River Derwent
Black Swans, River Derwent. Source: State Growth
River Derwent, black swans, 1957
River Derwent, black swans, 1957. Source: State Library of Tasmania, AB713-1-5800

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