\n The bird, native to Australia and known for its striking black plumage, was seen at the meanders in Seven Sisters Country Park last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement on Facebook, Seven Sisters Country Park said: “We spotted a black swan on the meanders this week \u2013 not something we often see.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Native to Australia, they originate in the UK from ornamental collections of the late 18th century that escaped captivity and went on to establish in the wild.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We think it’s a lone swan passing through, but how exciting would it be if they nested here.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s a timely reminder to keep dogs on leads around the meanders to protect our birds and nests during nesting season.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The black swan spotted at Seven Sisters Country Park (Image: Sylvia King\/Seven Sisters Country Park)\n<\/p>\n
\n Black swans are large waterbirds commonly found throughout Australia.\u00a0They are the only swan species in the world with entirely black feathers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Compared to the UK\u2019s native mute swan, black swans are more vocal and sociable, gathering in large flocks rather than remaining solitary.\n<\/p>\n
\n The species was first described by English naturalist John Latham in 1790.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Before European exploration of Australia, black swans held an almost mythical status in European culture.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Roman satirist Juvenal used the phrase “a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan” as a metaphor for something that could not exist.\n<\/p>\n
\n The discovery of black swans in Australia overturned this belief. Today, a “black swan event” refers to something extremely rare and unexpected.\n<\/p>\n
\n Black swans are native only to Australia (Image: Bernard Spragg)\n<\/p>\n
\n Sightings of black swans in the UK remain unusual, as they are not native and do not appear on the official British List of wild birds.\n<\/p>\n
\n The black swans seen in Britain today are mostly descendants of birds that escaped from ornamental collections.\n<\/p>\n
\n The first recorded black swan arrived in the UK in 1791, and the species quickly became popular in private collections, zoos, and ornamental parks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some birds escaped and began breeding in the wild, but the population has remained low.\u00a0A 2012 study recorded just 37 confirmed nesting pairs across the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n The mute swan is common in the UK (Image: Yerpo)\n<\/p>\n
\n With no established wild populations in East Sussex, it is likely the black swan at Seven Sisters came from a nearby ornamental pond or private collection.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lone black swans occasionally appear at scattered sites across the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2025, one was spotted in Stratford-upon-Avon in January, and another in Orkney in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bird, native to Australia and known for its striking black plumage, was seen at the meanders in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-505074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}