Magellanic Penguins

Description:

I visited a penguin rookery on Martillo Island in Argentina. It was my first time seeing penguins in the wild. It was an amazing experience to see the penguins swimming in the water and nest sites with adult and juvenile penguins. Martillo Island, on the Beagle Channel, is part of the Estancia Harberton. It is home to Magellanic penguins between September and April. The rookery hosts around 1000 nests, and is one of the three Magellanic penguin rookeries in Tierra del Fuego.

Habitat:

Martillo Island Rookery, Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Notes:

The Magellanic Penguin is distributed along coastal areas of southern Argentina and Chile. A medium-sized penguin, it resembles the partly sympatric Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) but has a thick black collar, broader white eyebrow, and a smaller area of pink flesh at the bill base. Birds nest on beaches, sandy hills, on grassy slopes, or even in forest. Away from the nest they are largely pelagic, and generally migrate north from April to August. Among the threats to populations of Magellanic Penguin are hunting, egg collecting, guano mining, oil pollution, and commercial fishing. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Neotropical Birds http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/por...