Africa Wild

002. King Penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus Koningspikkewyn
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae



Description
94 cm. Second largest of the Penguins. Upper-parts are silvery grey, under-parts white, with a fine black line separating the two. Head is dark chocolate brown with an orange "ear patch" that extends down onto the upper breast, becoming paler and yellower. Bill is black, with a pink base and in good light and with close views, shows blue on the lower mandible. Juveniles have a yellow "ear patch" which deepens in colour with age. Non-breeding birds are not as brightly coloured as breeding birds.

Distribution
King Penguins breed in colonies on the sub-antarctic islands at the northern reaches of Antarctica, South Georgia, and other temperate islands of the region. Closest breeding population on Marion Island. Dispersing across the Southern Ocean in the non-breeding season, generally staying below 35° south. It occasionally lands on ships which take it further north; two birds have been found on vessels in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, South Africa.

Habitat
Southern Oceans. A vagrant to South Africa, with 6 records.

Diet: King Penguins eat small fish, and squid and rely less than most Southern Ocean predators on krill and other crustaceans. On foraging trips they repeatedly dive to over 100m, and have been recorded at depths greater than 300m.

Breeding
Breeding colonies of the king penguin are found on bare ground and amongst vegetation, and may be close to the shoreline on gently sloping beaches, or in valleys several hundred metres from the sea. During pair formation, both sexes engage in an elaborate display of head shaking, strutting, bowing, calling, and high-pointing, where a couple stand face-to-face, and slowly rise to their full height before relaxing again. A single egg is laid between November and April, with both parent birds sharing incubation duties in two to three week cycles. Instead of building a nest, the egg is incubated on top of the feet under the warm belly, with each pair’s somewhat mobile territory defined simply by pecking-distance. After hatching, parental duties continue to be equally shared by both sexes, with one staying on land to brood the chick while the other goes in search of food at sea. When the chick reaches around six weeks old, it joins a group of chicks known as a crèche, thus allowing both parents to go foraging at the same time, in order to bring back enough food for the voracious offspring. The crèche provides the woolly chicks with protection from predators, as well as the benefit of collective warmth.

Call
Soft cooing call notes at sea.
Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Rare vagrant.

002. King Penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus Koningspikkewyn


Adults








King Penguin colony, Bay of Isles


King Penguins are unique among birds as they have an 18 month breeding cycle and can breed throughout the year, although if the timing is wrong, most with young chicks during the Winter months will fail. This means that at any one time, the colony can have all stages of breeding going on, from display, to incubation, through to almost fledged chicks.



Links:
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)
Oiseaux net

926. Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua (Witoorpikkewyn)
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae


Leopard Seal hunting Gentoo Penguins

Description
76-81 cm. Typical black & white Penguin with white patches behind the eyes. Bright orange bill and feet.

Distribution
Circumpolar. Breeds on many subantarctic islands such as South Georgia, Falkland Islands, South Shetlands, Kerguelen, Marion, Macquarie & Heard Islands and along the Antarctic Peninsula, heading north in the non-breeding season but rarely venturing more than 100 km's from the colony. It is a rare vagrant to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, where it is only recorded once near Bloubergstrand, Cape Town in 1992.

Habitat
Oceanic.

Diet
Krill & fish. It mainly eats crustaceans and small fish, doing most of its foraging in stints of 2-4 minutes up to 30 m underwater, rarely descending further down to 150 m below sea level in a seven minute long dive.

Breeding
Gentoos breed on many sub-Antarctic islands. Nests are usually made from a roughly circular pile of stones and can be quite large, 20 cm high and 25 cm in diameter. The stones are jealously guarded and their ownership can be the subject of noisy disputes between individual penguins. They are also prized by the females, even to the point that a male penguin can obtain the favors of a female by offering her a nice stone. Two eggs are laid, both weighing around 500 g. The parents share incubation, changing duty daily. The eggs hatch after 34 to 36 days. The chicks remain in the nests for about 30 days before forming creches. The chicks molt into sub-adult plumage and go out to sea at about 80 to 100 days.

Call
Usually silent at sea.
Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Extremely rare vagrant with a single record from Cape Town.

926. Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua (Witoorpikkewyn)





Links:
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)
ARKive
Oiseaux net
More photos by Dewi: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... t=60#p3625

004. Southern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome (Geelkuifpikkewyn)
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae

Description
55-61 cm. Has a short, stubby, red bill and a pale yellow stripe extending from in front of the eye to the nape, where it ends in a golden, shaggy crest. Upperparts black, underparts white. Reddish feet.
Juvenile lacks yellow markings of adult and has pale grey mottling on the chin.

Distribution
Breeds on sub-Antarctic and southern temperate islands, dispersing across the sea generally up to 500 km from the colony. There have been 48 records of it in southern Africa up to 1992, most of them along the coast of the Western and Eastern Cape; all but one were found at sea.
Two sub-species. Eudyptes chrysocome chrysocome breeds around Southern South America and the Falkland Islands with sporadic breeding on South Georgia. E c filholi Breeds an subantarctic islands of the Indian & Western Pacific Oceans.

Habitat
Oceanic.

Diet
Krill, fish, squid, crustaceans, plankton & cuttlefish. It mainly eats small crustaceans, supplemented with squid and fish, especially Lanternfish (Kreffichthys anderssoni). It does most of its foraging within 40 metres of the water surface, rarely descending to a depth of 70 metres. It can swim at up to 7-8 km/h.

Breeding
It breeds in large colonies that may comprise over a hundred thousand nests. Breeding pairs are monogamous, and usually return to the same nest every year. Egg-laying commences around November, with the female usually producing a clutch of two eggs of unequal size. Although in general only the chick from the larger egg survives to maturity, populations on the Falkland Islands frequently succeed in raising both. Incubation takes around 33 days, with both adult birds taking it in turns to sit on the eggs for extended periods of time, while the other forages for food. Incubation is aided by a bare patch of skin on the lower abdomen (known as a 'brood patch') that allows greater heat transfer to the egg. Once hatched, the adult male will remain to brood the chick for the first 25 days, while the female regularly brings food back to the nest. After this time, the chick is able to leave the nest, and will congregate with other chicks in small groups known as 'crèches' while the adult birds forage.

Call
Occasionally soft contact haw call at sea.
Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Rare vagrant to the South coasts. The Rockhopper penguin is classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List.

004. Southern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome (Geelkuifpikkewyn)
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae



Links:
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)
ARKive
Oiseaux net

005. Macaroni Penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus (Langkuifpikkewyn)
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae



Description
70 cm. Adult Macaroni Penguins have golden-yellow plume-like feathers that arise from a central patch on the forehead, extending back along the crown and drooping down behind the eye. The head, chin, throat and upperparts are black, the underparts are white, and the flippers are black on the upper surface but mainly white below. The large bill is orange-brown, the eyes are red and there is a patch of bare pink skin from the base of the bill to the eye. The legs and feet are pink.
Immatures lack the head plumes or have a few sparse yellow feathers on the forehead; their bills are smaller than those of adults and are brownish-black in colour, while the chin and throat are dark grey.
Similar species: Distinguished from Rockhopper Penguin by stouter, more robust bill, larger body size, and orange-yellow eyebrows that meet on the forehead.

Distribution
Breeds on sub-Antarctic islands, as well as islands off Chile and the Antarctic Peninsula, dispersing in the non-breeding season to the sea, although the range of its movements are unknown. It is a rare vagrant to southern Africa, with roughly 8 records of moulting individuals along the shoreline of the Western Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal, with only a single bird recorded at see off the coast of Cape Town.

Habitat
Oceanic.

Diet
Krill, crustaceans, squid & fish. It mainly eats crustacean zooplankton, supplemented with squid and fish, especially lanternfish (Krefftichthys andersonni). It mainly forages between 10-80 metres beneath sea level, rarely up to 150m, moving at roughly 7-8 km/h.

Breeding
Breeds in tightly-packed colonies, which over time erode ground down to bedrock with trampling.

Status
Rare vagrant to Southern coasts.

005. Macaroni Penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus (Langkuifpikkewyn)



Links:
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)
Oiseaux net
Wikipedia
ARKive: http://www.arkive.org/macaroni-penguin/ ... ysolophus/
More photos by Dewi: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... t=70#p3631

003. African Penguin (Jackass Penguin) Spheniscus demersus (Brilpikkewyn)
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae


Adult

Description
60-70 cm. Black upperparts and white underparts with a distinctive, single black bar on the upper chest and black spots. Note that the occasional bird sports a double bar similar to Magellanic Penguin. Their distinctive black and white colouring is a vital form of camouflage, white for underwater predators looking upwards and black for predators looking down onto the dark water. The black spots are unique for every penguin, somewhat like human fingerprints. White eyebrow extends in a curve behind the eye down to the breast. Eyes have a pink ring of skin which extends forward to the bill. Bill is black and has a distinct white line just behind the tip. Feet greyish-black.
The males are larger than the females and have larger beaks.
Juveniles are a dark greyish blue, lack the chest band and have grey cheeks.

Distribution
Coasts of southern Africa from the central coast of Namibia to Mozambique. Breeds on islands and at four mainland sites along the South African and Namibian coastline.



Habitat
Oceanic. African Penguins normally occur within 50 km of the shore, mainly on the offshore islands. Coming ashore to breed on beaches and offshore islands. There are 29 colonies spread out across the coastline, most of which are positioned on islands with flat sandy ground or steep, rocky embankments with sparse vegetation. There are some on the mainland as well, mainly in inaccessible caves or at suburban or even partially urban sites around Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

Movements and migrations: It usually stays within three kilometres of the colony when breeding, however in the non-breeding season it may travel up to roughly 400 km away on foraging trips. It prefers to forage near the coast, however it has occasionally been recorded about 100km out to sea.

Diet
African Penguins feed primarily on shoaling pelagic fish such as anchovies, pilchards (sardines), horse mackerel and round herrings. This diet is supplemented by squid and crustaceans. They forage either alone or in small groups, often alongside Cape gannets, Sooty shearwaters, Cape cormorants, Kelp gulls, terns and marine mammals. Adults often work together to surround and trap a shoal, catching them from below before swallowing the fish underwater and returning to the surface. It may also pursue prey downwards up to a depth of roughly 130m, usually less than 50 m. When on the hunt for prey African Penguins can reach a top speed of close to 20 km/h. The distance that African Penguins have to travel to find food varies. On the west coast a typical foraging trip could range from 30 to 70 km for a single trip. On the south coast foraging birds cover an average of 110 km per trip. When feeding their young the distance they can travel from the breeding colony is more limited.

Breeding
African Penguins are monogamous, and the same pair will generally return to the same colony, and often the same nest site, each year. About 80 to 90% of pairs remain together in consecutive breeding seasons. Some pairs are known to have remained together for over 10 years.
Males perform a display to convey the ownership of their territory, in which it stands with its head and bill and skywards while calling loudly. It is a colonial nester, breeding in tightly-packed colonies of up to about 21 400 pairs. The nest is usually a burrow dug by both both sexes in guano or sand, roughly 56 cm deep and often lined with seaweed, bones, feathers and pieces of vegetation. It is typically placed in cavities between rocks, concealed by vegetation or out in the open. Egg-laying season peaks from September-December in central Namibia, April-May in Lambert's Bay, February-August at Malgas Island, Marcus Island and Stony Point, January-August at Robben Island and from June-December at Dassen Island. It lays 1-3 chalky white eggs at roughly three day intervals, which are incubated equally by both sexes for about 38-41 days, alternating incubation duties every 1-2 days. The chicks are constantly brooded in alternating shifts by their parents for the first five days of their lives. By the time they reach 26-30 days old, it is necessary for both parents to forage simultaneously, still returning regularly to the nest regularly to regurgitate food. The young may form crèches at this age, losing their down feathers when they become 41-45 days old, leaving the nest at 64-86 days of age and becoming fully independent 44-66 days later. At this point in their lives they disperse from the colony, travelling up to about 1900 km; they either return to breed later or they move to a different colony.

Call
Donkey-like braying.
Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Very common to locally abundant endemic resident. Classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red List.

003. African Penguin (Jackass Penguin) Spheniscus demersus
Order: Sphenisciformes. Family: Spheniscidae

© Dewi
Adults & juveniles

© Toko

© Toko

© Michele Nel
Chick

Links:
Species text Sabap1: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/003.pdf]
Sabap2
Oiseaux net: http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-african-penguin.html
Ryan, P. 2012. African Penguins. African Birdlife 1(1):30-31.
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)
Ryan, P.G. 1996. Dinner jacket strategies: why jackass penguins wear striped tuxedos! Africa - Birds & Birding 1(3):44-50.
SANBI