Great news that you saved the young cygnet. Has it been pinioned (rendered surgically unable to fly?). If so, then it will need to stay in a captive setting. If not, it still may need to be pinioned quickly as the procedure requires surgical veterinary medical care involving anesthesia which can be rather expensive. The older the bird, the harder it is on the bird and death may result. So, you need to get it pinioned.

Now, having said all of this, because it has been raised by humans, the longer that it stays in captivity, the longer that it will imprint (meaning it thinks it is a human instead of a swan). Imprinting will prevent the swan from ever being released into the wild because it hasn't learned swan smarts (how to migrate, how to evade predators, etc.). The more it is used to people the likelier chance it will go to anyone or anything including humans who may try to harm the bird or domestic and wild animals.

If you are concerned that it has imprinted and you cannot release it into the wild, you havce two options:

1. Release the bird to a wildlife rehabilitation center (even Kellogg Bird Center at Eastern Michigan University, may be able to help).

2. Keep the bird and continue to raise it on your pond (get it pinioned so it cannot get hurt flying to another area) and train the bird to come indoors at night. It will learn to go out onto the pond during the daytime and then seek shelter in an enclosed pen (top and bottom) at the bottom of your house/property. This may be a time consuming training session as you may need to get a boat to get the bird to come out of water, but if you train it at an early age (6 months is the earliest that you will be able to release it onto the pond on its own due to size (as predators such as soft-shelled and snapping turtles, hawks, etc. will get a young bird), then you may have some success. We hope that this information is of benefit. The Regal Swan