Did i really see a black swan? (1 Viewer)

[Rygh]

Sooo. I live in the north west. North tip of idaho. And i just watched a black sean fly over. Id never heard of them before but it was a black swan. White wingtips. And it was with three tundra swans.
Any ideas on where it came from? Are they ever seen?

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

welcome to birdforum!

Yes, you saw a Black Swan. Its native to Australia, but introduced in several parts of the world.
See: Black swan - Wikipedia

 

[Kits]

Welcome to BirdForum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

 

[Rygh]

Hello,

welcome to birdforum!

Yes, you saw a Black Swan. Its native to Australia, but introduced in several parts of the world.
See: Black swan - Wikipedia

Cool! How rare are they?

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello again,

I dont know how rare they are in the US, but one benefit from birdfourm is, that many birdlovers from all around the world can help. So more comments will surely come. Thanks from me, too!

 

[delia todd]

Hi Rygh and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. I moved your post to the rather more appropriate Bird ID forum, where it should attract more replies. You can read more about Black Swans here, in our Opus article: Black Swan - BirdForum Opus.

Along with many other species, Black Swans have been held in wildfowl collections all over the world; so of course many escape and start to live in the wild. While never a common sight, you can come across them occasionally.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[nartreb]

Cool! How rare are they?

In Idaho? Even rarer than in most of the US, which is already extremely rare. The nearest sighting this year (according to E-Bird, which is usually pretty reliable for the US) was near Portland, Oregon. That's not a big distance for a swan (Tundras migrate over your area from Alaska on their way to California) but it does show that the numbers are extremely low.