Penguins | Sphenisciformes

Pinguïns | Pingüinos

Seabirds that have given up flight entirely in exchange for swimming: the wings have become stiff, flat paddles with almost no movement at the shoulder, and the bones are solid rather than air-filled, which makes diving easier. The body is spindle-shaped and the legs are set far back, so on land the bird walks upright or slides on its belly. The plumage consists of short, stiff, overlapping feathers with a downy base, which together with a layer of subcutaneous fat form a waterproof insulating coat; all the feathers are moulted at once, during which the bird stays ashore for some weeks and does not feed. They hunt fish, squid and crustaceans in shoals, driving themselves forward with the wings and steering with feet and tail. They breed in colonies on the ground, in burrows or under bushes, with one or two eggs incubated by both parents in shifts.

Families in this order

Penguins | Spheniscidae8 speciesThe plumage is sharply two-toned: black or slate grey on the back and upper wing, white below, a countershading that hides the bird from above against dark water and from below against the light. The specific characters lie mainly on the head and breast: in Spheniscus one or two black breast bands, a white horseshoe-shaped line around the head and bare pink skin above the eye that sheds heat; in Eudyptes projecting yellow eyebrow plumes; in Aptenodytes orange ear patches and a long, slightly decurved bill. One species breeds on the mainland coast and inshore islands, in burrows dug into guano or sand or under bushes and boulders, with two eggs and an incubation of about forty days; the pair relieve one another and feed by day within a few tens of kilometres of the colony. Species of the subantarctic islands and the Southern Ocean reach the southern coasts only as vagrants, usually as moulting or weakened birds on beaches. Under water they swim with wingbeats at over ten kilometres an hour and dive routinely to a few tens of metres.