Latin name - Cygnus olor

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.