10 Amazing Facts about Chinstrap Penguins

Chinstrap Penguins are incredible birds. These 10 facts will have you hoping to see one the next time you’re in the Southern Atlantic Ocean! Chinstrap Penguins have super cool markings and love to fish. They have big families and like to swim!

10 Amazing Facts about Chinstrap Penguins

1. Chinstrap Penguins have unique markings!

These penguins have blackheads, white faces, and black bills. Most of their body is black, but they have white bellies. Their most intriguing feature is their chinstrap, a thin band of black feathers just below their bills!

2. The Chinstrap Penguin lives in the sub-Antarctic.

Chinstrap Penguins reside in the Southern Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic islands there. They can often be seen swimming off the coast of some South American countries.

3. Chinstrap Penguins have rocky and icy habitats.

The Chinstrap Penguin is a marine animal, living in waters with light ice. Is that how they order their sodas; with light ice? These penguins nest on irregular rocky coasts.

4. The Chinstrap Penguin is a migrating bird.

These penguins stay in their rocky colony homes from January to March and stay out at sea in ice patches from around April to October.

5. Chinstrap Penguins travel during the day!

Just like people, when Chinstrap Penguins are traveling, they do sure during daylight hours. When it is nighttime, they take breaks to rest and eat.

6. Chinstrap Penguins are krill lovers!

These penguins eat almost only krill. Occasionally they’ll eat fish or crustaceans, but it’s mostly krill for these guys, which they hunt for by diving.

7. The Chinstrap Penguin is a diver.

Chinstrap Penguins catch their krill prey by diving, usually to about 45 meters down. They do this at night, which means they don’t have to compete with other penguins who hunt for krill during the day.

8. Chinstrap Penguins like to make noise!

It is very noisy at Chinstrap Penguin colonies. To display their noise skills, the penguins make loud cackling sounds, accompanied by dancing (head swinging and flipper beating). They also make a soft humming or hissing sounds. When they want to contact each other, they use a low bark.

9. Chinstrap Penguins make nests out of stones.

These penguins have huge colonies, sometimes with hundreds of thousands of birds. When in their colonies, they make nests as a platform of stones. There are usually two eggs and both parents help keep the eggs warm!

10. The Chinstrap Penguin is not endangered!

This penguin is not endangered! In fact, there are about 8 million Chinstrap Penguins on the Earth right now. Good thing too, because these penguins have better breeding success when there are lots of other penguins around!

Ornithology

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