The Adelie Penguin Pygoscelis adeliae is the prototypical penguin, black and white, incrediby cute and adorable. I got home yesterday from a 3+,week trip to Ushuaia, Argentina and an expedition cruise to Antarctica.
It was a boat full of birders, put on by the American Birding Association and Rockjumper Birding, along with a group with Alvaro's Adventures. It was a great experience being with so many birders on such a wild adventure.
We managed 8 species of penguins, so more posts to follow.
The Adelie is the only penguin in Antarctica named after an explorer's wife. The French Antarctic explorer, Jules Dumont d'Urvillediscovered these sea birds in 1840 and decided to name them after his beloved wife – Adéle.
These were the smallest of the penguins I saw on the trip, with a length of 71-72 cm, and weighing 38-8.2 kg. This species is highly pelagic, only really coming to land regularly to breed, but often seen pulled out of the water on icebergs in the non-breeding season. They molt on ice flows rather than on the breeding ground.
Like all penguins, these are flightless birds, with their "wings" functioning in the water as flippers to "fly" through the water.
The Adelie Penguin feeds primarily on krill, a small shrmip-like creature that is the food am many species in the Antarctic oceans.
Like most penguins the Adelie is pretty oblivious to humans in its environment. Here is a Adelie on eggs.
Stay tuned for more posts from my recent adventure.
Good birding.