Black Swans and Wood Ducks

Black Swan in a River

Black Swan from Willow Park Zoo

Black Swan with Arched Neck from Willow Park Zoo

Black Swans are native to the Southwest and Southeast regions of Australia.  They are beautiful birds that are primarily black.  They have a red bill with a yellow tip.or pale tip.  An adult is up to 56 inches or 142 cm long.  They have a wingspan of up to 6 1/2 feet or 2 meters long.  It has the longest neck of all swans and often that neck can be in an S shape.  Adult Black Swans can weigh up to almost 20 lbs or about 9 kg.  

I am including some pictures of the swans at the Willow Park Zoo in Logan, Utah.  I drew the above drawing from one of these photos.  There was also a pelican at the zoo and the male black swan drove the pelican off and the male Black Swan fluffed it s feathers and stretched its neck tall to look imposing. 

Black swans are found on some estates in the United States and sometimes they escape and form wild flocks.  A few years ago my wife and I were at the mouth of the Columbia River and we saw a flock or wedge of Black Swans in the water.   They must have escaped some estate somewhere on the West Coast of the United States.

Sometimes (usually when flying in a V formation) a group of swans is called a Wedge of Swans.  Also, a female swan is a pen. . . a male swan is a cob . . . and the babies are called Cygnets.  The Latin word for swan is Cygnus.

The constellation of Cygnus is also called the Northern Cross.  It is located in the summer sky and right in the middle of the Milky Way.  It LOOKS like the swan is flying down the Milky Way.  It is one of my favorite constellations.  (Besides a retired science teacher and an artists. . . I am also an amateur astronomer.)  One of these days I am going to draw the animals and characters of many of the constellations.   

Now, SOME underfeathers ARE white, but the above swan should really be colored a black or gray-black . . . except for the beak or bill.   Resist the temptation to leave it white. . . it is a BLACK Swan.  Look at the photos I took at the Willow Park Zoo.

Wood Duck Mates

There were also a pair of Wood Ducks at the zoo.  Wood ducks are the most beautiful of all duck speices. . . in our opinion.  They are found in all states of the USA. . . or at least in the contiguous 48.  They are rather rare in some dryer parts of Utah, Colorado, Idaho,, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nevada.  They were once considered a very threatened species... but now they are doing much better.  They are brightly colored and have a unique crest that is kind of crane-like or heron-like. . . or maybe egrit-like.  

Of course the male Woood Duch is much more colorful.  The drawing is of the male and female Wood Ducks that were at the Willow Park Zoo.  They may not look exactly like a photo or drawing you have seen elsewhere, but that is because, like all living things, there is repeticiton with variation.  So no two Wood Ducks look alike.  They ARE similar, but just like you don't look exactly like your neighbor, no two animals of the same species are exactly alike.

The male duck is called a Drake and the female is actually called a duck.  So a lot of us are wrong to call a male a duck. . . it is a drake.   The baby ducks are called Ducklings.  Or as my grandson would say. . . Duckies!

The phrase, "repetition with variation" is what my Art Teacher, (Tim Bird from Artist Corner in Orem, Utah), keeps telling me when I am drawing.  He also says or implies that my drawins sometimes have...                         
                                      "...too much repetition and not enough variation!"

Here are the photos of the male Wood Duck from Willow Park Zoo. . .

Male Wood Duck or Drake from Willow Park Zoo

Male Wood Duck or Drake from Willow Park Zoo

NOTE:  These drawings. . . in printable form are found by clicking the All Printables button or the Animals button at the top of the page.    New drawings... like these . . . are found at the bottom of the lists.