(Click on any image below for a larger version)
Chinstrap Penguins are widely distributed in Antarctica. We saw them on Elephant Island, Deception Island and Livingstone Island.
Chinstrap Penguins leap out of the water like a school of
dolphins.
Chinstrap Penguins are easily distinguished by
the narrow black stripe under the white face.
The Chinstrap Penguin rookery is thickly coated
in pink penguin guano. The constant dampness supports a thick,
old fish market kind of odor.
Dirty Chinstrap Penguins are constantly waddling into the water
as clean penguins haul themselves onto land along the spit.
The air is filled with the constant display cries of male
penguins looking for mates.
"I don't know. Where do you want to go for
dinner?"
Chinstrap Penguin chicks sit waiting patiently
for their parents to return with food.
Chick feeding is a constant
operation in the rookery. The gray chicks tickle the beaks of the
adults to trigger a regurgitation of the krill stored in their
crops. It is possible to see the pink, shrimp-like crustaceans
come up into the mouths of the adults before the chicks reach in
to grab them. Krill grow to be nearly two inches long, and large
krill wouldn't look out of place on a cocktail shrimp platter.
The downy chicks accumulate a crust of guano on
the lower parts of their bodies.
The Chinstrap Penguin chicks rest their heads
behind their wings as they napped.
The penguins pay scant attention to the Zodiacs
cruising through the strait.
The flat areas near the rocky outcrop are
covered in penguins. Other penguins have to climb to higher
ground to find a place to raise their chicks.
Some of them climb several hundred feet up the
slope to find their chicks.
It must take hours for some of them to climb up
to their chicks on the mountainside above the cape.
Sheathbills perch on a high point, keeping an
eye out for an opportunity to get some food.
A lone Chinstrap Penguin standing
on the shore of Whaler's Bay on Deception Island. The rookeries
are all on the perimeter of the island. Penguins don't rook
inside Port Foster because they need direct access to the open
ocean.
Both Gentoo Penguins and Chinstrap Penguins rook at Hannah Point
on Livingstone Island. Their colonies are right next to each
other, but they do not mix with each other very much.
The Chinstrap Penguin rookery is much messier
than the Gentoo Penguin rookery.
Chinstrap Penguins advertise their availability for mating by
flapping their wings and singing at the sky.
Adult Chinstrap Penguin.
The Chinstrap Penguin Chicks accumulate a
coating of guano as they sit around the rookery waiting for their
parents to return from feeding at sea.
There are occasional disagreements over
territory between the adult penguins.
The pairs of chicks beg the adult penguins to
cough up some lunch.
A Chinstrap Penguin and a Gentoo
Penguin encounter each other at the boundary between the
rookeries.
Background information about the Chinstrap Penguin.
Penguin index
page. You can buy a 2020 Calendar featuring my photographs of penguins taken in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
A dozen pictures of penguins taken in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands. Penguin species pictured include:
Gentoo
Adele
Chinstrap
Rockhopper
Macaroni
Magellanic
King.
Locations where the photographs were taken in the Falkland Islands include:
New Island
Carcass Island
Volunteer Point.
Antarctic locations include:
Paulet Island
Cape Lookout on Elephant Island.
Put a copy of the Penguins 2020 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $14.95.
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Hear the Chinstrap Penguins.