The black swan was introduced to various countries as an ornamental bird in the 1800s, but has managed to escape and form stable populations.

This bird is a regional symbol of both Western Australia, where it is native, and the English town of Dawlish, where it is an introduced species.

The black swan utters a musical and far reaching bugle-like sound, called either on the water or in flight, as well as a range of softer crooning notes.

[3][6] When swimming, black swans hold their necks arched or erect and often carry their feathers or wings raised in an aggressive display.

In flight, a wedge of black swans will form as a line or a V, with the individual birds flying strongly with undulating long necks, making whistling sounds with their wings and baying, bugling or trumpeting calls.

[3] The black swan is unlike any other Australian bird, although in poor light and at long range it may be confused with a magpie goose in flight.

In the south west its range encompasses an area between North West Cape, Cape Leeuwin and Eucla; while in the east it covers a large region bounded by the Atherton Tableland, the Eyre Peninsula and Tasmania, with the Murray Darling Basin supporting very large populations of black swans.

The black swan's preferred habitat extends across fresh, brackish and salt water lakes, swamps and rivers with underwater and emergent vegetation for food and nesting materials.

It also favors permanent wetlands, including ornamental lakes, but can also be found in flooded pastures and tidal mudflats, and occasionally on the open sea near islands or the shore.

When rain does fall in the arid central regions, black swans will migrate to these areas to nest and raise their young.

[11] The black swan, like many other water fowl, loses all its flight feathers at once when it moults after breeding and is unable to fly for about a month.

[6] Black swans have also naturally flown to New Zealand, leading scientists to consider them a native rather than exotic species, although the present population appears to be largely descended from deliberate introductions.

As yet, the population in Britain is not considered to be self-sustaining and so the species is not afforded admission to the official British List,[13] but the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust have recorded a maximum of nine breeding pairs in the UK in 2001, with an estimate of 43 feral birds in 2003–2004.

[16][17][18] Black swans have been reported in Florida, but there is no evidence that they are breeding; persistent sightings may be due to continual releases or escapes.

The black swan is almost exclusively herbivorous, and while there is some regional and seasonal variation, the diet is generally dominated by aquatic and marshland plants.

In New South Wales the leaf of reedmace (genus Typha) is the most important food of birds in wetlands, followed by submerged algae and aquatic plants such as Vallisneria.

The exact composition varies with water level; in flood situations where normal foods are out of reach black swans will feed on pasture plants on shore.

[29][30][31] Generally, black swans in the Southern hemisphere nest in the wetter winter months (February to September), occasionally in large colonies.