Penguin Watch Talk

Adults or chicks

  • geoff2420 by geoff2420

    Could some of these penguins have been big chicks? I was unable to tell from this distance. I did however see an image of a different site from a similar time of year with large chicks, making me wonder if I could have labelled them incorrectly. Any advice on this would be really welcome.

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  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Hi Geoff2420. thank you for checking. One of the problems with this site is that the penguins are at a distance. And during March there are huge juvenile chicks just moulting into adulthood, at the same time as the adults are moulting. Not helpful. Usually the quickest way to tell is that the chicks just do not have that white head flash. But by March the juveniles are showing it. In the long run we follow the scientists advice - if you are in doubt -mark it as 'adult'. We've got a smashing set of FAQs and FAQ3's got helpful hints about the differences between chicks and adults for the types of penguins that we see (though I think we still need to add Macaronis, but they are very very similar to Rockhoppers). FAQs are here: http://talk.penguinwatch.org/#/boards/BPZ0000007
    You might find the breeding cycle diagram handy too. It's in FAQ4: http://talk.penguinwatch.org/#/boards/BPZ0000007/discussions/DPZ0000adb

    I took a very close look at this group - but all have the white head flash and black throats so I can't point out a chick. Definitely mark these as adults.

    I hope you enjoy PW - always feel welcome to ask questions 😃
    Joan (AvastMH)

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