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Historic Status

The Mute Swan arrived in the United States as a boutique item during the Victorian Age, something nice to look at during the great era of exhibitionism in the northeastern United States. The population we have now probably descends from birds initially introduced on, and ultimately escaped from, Long Island and Hudson Valley estates around the beginning of the twentieth century. Irregular breeding by the 1960s gave way to more consistent nesting activity by the time of the first Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas.

Atlas 1 Distribution

As an expanding species from coastal areas south of Massachusetts, Mute Swans were predictably most heavily concentrated in southeastern Massachusetts during Atlas 1. A pair of blocks in Essex County and a Possible block in Plymouth were the only records of Mute Swan presence in the Coastal Plains, but there were more than a dozen reported locations for Mute Swan breeding in the Bristol/Narragansett Lowlands. The birds had fully established themselves on the Cape and Islands, which accounted for nearly 70% of all Atlas 1 records.

Atlas 2 Distribution and Change

The march of Mute Swans continued across the state during the inter-Atlas period, with Atlas 2 posting sightings in more than 30% of all the blocks in the state compared with only 6% during Atlas 1. Many of the western regions remain swan free, although the Connecticut River offers an avenue of colonization into the west. The pattern of settlement in the east shows persistence in block occupancy in much of the southeast, along with a filling in of their range in the Cape and Islands and the Bristol Lowlands. In this, the heart of their Massachusetts range, there are very few blocks reporting a loss of this species since Atlas 1. If left unchecked, Mute Swans will likely slowly continue their conquest of Massachusetts.

Atlas 1 Map

Atlas 2 Map

Atlas Change Map