[birdky] Possible Black Swan Hybrid
- From: Paul McAllister <pcmcal@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 18:38:43 -0500
Fellow birders,
On Sunday, 1-31-2010 at 12:15 pm at Reformatory Lake near Buckner, KY, we
observed a swan that appeared to be a juvenile hybrid black swan. It had a
black neck, pinkish-black bill and a sooty black back with white flecks. It
was with another swan -- mottled relatively dark gray with white and also
with a pinkish-black bill. At first, we thought that both the birds were
juvenile mute swans, but the black plumage on the one was so dark that we
had second thoughts. Both birds had black legs and appeared to have held
their necks in S shapes as do mute swans. There are two resident mute swans
on the lake. The two darker swans did not associate with them and remainded
together. We have returned twice to the lake, but have not seen the "dark"
swans again (the resident mute swans remain). Has anyone else seen birds
like these in Kentucky? --or is anyone aware of the existence of black swans
in KY that may have interbred with mute swans? (According to a UK web site,
hybridized black and mute swans have been recorded.)
Paul and Carol McAllister
Prospect KY
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