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Magellanic Penguin | Spheniscus magellanicus
Magelhaenpinguïn | Pingüino Magallánico
The Magellanic Penguin is the South American counterpart of the African Penguin, of the same genus and with the same black-and-white head and breast pattern, but with two rather than one black bands across the breast. In the region it is an extreme rarity that has managed to cross the Atlantic.
Voice
A donkey-like bray, aa-aa-aaaah, similar to that of African Penguin but slightly lower and fuller, given with the head thrown back; at the nest also short barks.
Recording: Meena Haribal — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 70–76 cm, slightly larger and heavier than African Penguin. The upperparts are black, the underparts white. A broad white band runs from above the eye down the sides of the head to the throat, framing a black face mask. Two black bands cross the upper breast: a broad upper band like a collar below the throat and below it a narrower horseshoe-shaped band continuing down the flanks. A small patch of bare pink skin lies around the bill base and above the eye. The bill is black with a pale band, the feet mottled black and pink. Immatures are greyer, with a vague grey cheek, and lack the double breast band.
Confusion species
African Penguin Spheniscus demersus is the obvious pitfall: it has a single black breast band, a larger pink skin patch above the eye and often black spots on the breast. Immatures of the two are very hard to separate; check size, bill depth and any trace of a second band. A suspected Magellanic Penguin among African Penguins calls for good photographs of breast and head.
Habitat
It breeds in burrows and under bushes on coasts, islands and grassy slopes in South America. Outside the breeding season it lives at sea over the continental shelf, hunting anchovy, sardine and squid. Vagrants in the region have been found on the shore or among African Penguins in a colony.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region recorded only a handful of times, on the coast of the Western Cape in South Africa; some birds may have been ship-assisted, but the species also wanders far under its own power. Beyond the region it breeds along the coasts of Argentina and Chile and on the Falkland Islands, and moves north in the southern winter to Brazil and Peru.
How and when to look
Always check the number of breast bands on wandering or resting penguins along the Western Cape coast, and in case of doubt contact SANCCOB or the rarities committee: weakened birds often end up in rehabilitation centres, where a firm identification is possible.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened, with more than a million pairs, but declining sharply in places. Threats include oil pollution along the Argentine coast, bycatch in fishing nets, competition with fisheries and ocean changes that force birds to swim further for food. Within the region the species is of no real significance.
Scientific name
Spheniscus magellanicus | (Forster, 1781)
Forster described the species in 1781 as Aptenodytes magellanicus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Spheniscus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Spheniscus is the diminutive of the Greek sphen, 'wedge' — 'little wedge', for the wedge-shaped, flipper-like wings with which penguins swim. magellanicus refers to the Strait of Magellan in southern South America, where the species was first described. The specimen the first description was based on came from Strait of Magellan.