Penguin Watch Talk

Difference between chicks and adults and how do I see eggs?

  • brbcca by brbcca

    Hi! I would like to know if there is better information about the differences between adults and chicks and how I can make out eggs. In this picture I assumed that the three penguin in the left corner are chicks because they have no orange spout but I'm often unsure about categorizing chicks.

    Posted

  • AvastMH by AvastMH moderator

    Hello brbcca and welcome to PenguinWatch,

    We have a treasure trove of marking tips and information about chicks/adults/eggs and you can find those here: https://talk.penguinwatch.org/#/boards/BPZ0000007 Please do read them, they are very short 😃

    A few hints for you now:

    Eggs: You will not see them very often. It is fun when you do see them. The adult stands up to turn the egg now and then, and also the parents swap brooding duties. Only during those very short minutes will you see an egg.

    Chicks and adults: These are gentoo penguins. The young chicks do not have that white head-band or head-flash. Also young chicks have a small area of white feathers at the top of their wings. You can see that on one of the chicks in this picture.

    When the chicks are almost grown up it can be very difficult to see the diference between them and their parents. When that happens we ask you to mark the penguin as 'adult'. That works very well for the science team and is very easy for us too 😃

    The spout: We call this the 'beak'. It is bright red when the penguin has eaten krill (a bit like shrimp). When the pengiun eats fish their beak is not so red. The beak changes colour like that in the adults and the chicks 😃

    I hope this helps you. thank you for helping us by marking penguins! 😄

    Posted