Humboldt Penguin - description, habitat, interesting facts

The content of the article

1 Habitat
2 Appearance
3 Power Features
4 Nesting and breeding
5 Behavior of the species
6 Video: Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

The Humboldt Penguin is a bird of the penguin family, with a fairly wide range of distribution in the subtropical region of the Pacific Coast.

Habitat

The vast majority of their lives of birds of this species spend hunting, and directly the time spent in the water directly depends on when the breeding season begins. For example, those representatives of the species who have not yet created a pair for nesting, before going to land, are in the water for at least 60 hours. The maximum duration of a penguin's stay in the aquatic environment reaches 164 hours (long journeys and explorations of a new locality).

During nesting in the water, these waterfowl birds spend much less time (no more than a day, the maximum figures are about 36 hours).Like most of their relatives, such waterfowl as penguins rest on the rocky Pacific coast. Growing offspring is carried out in built nests. Often for their nesting birds use natural caves.

Appearance

The presented type of waterfowl is medium-sized birds, with a sufficient body length (not less than 70 cm) and body weight - up to 5 kg. The back of the bird has a feather cover of black color, the sternum of a penguin is white.

The head of the penguin is black, with characteristic light stripes located under the eyes and forming a kind of hoop that runs along the entire head and connects to the chin, forming a bend that resembles a horseshoe in its shape.

One of the characteristic features of this species, distinguishing it from related ones, is the presence of a continuous dark strip on the chest. It helps to immediately distinguish the Humboldt penguin from the Magellan.

Power Features

The basic ration of penguin representatives of this species is pelagic fish (large anchovy, garfish, sardines, and also squid). The peculiarities of the penguin's feeding areas determine the predominance of certain species of marine inhabitants in the diet. Also, often these birds feed on herring and atherina.

King Penguin - description, habitat, interesting facts

Nesting and breeding

A species of bird like the Humboldt penguins is distinguished by its monogamy. Male individuals jealously guard the nesting area from uninvited guests, and in the event of danger they immediately attack the enemy or competitor. At the same time, the result of such a rather serious skirmish is the death of the uninvited guest.

Penguins of this species can breed under favorable climatic conditions almost year-round. The breeding season itself begins with the onset of spring and ends with the onset of winter. The bird breeding peak occurs in the middle of spring and mid-summer. It should also be noted that the breeding season coincides with the beginning of the molting of birds. When a penguin sheds, it stays on dry land for two weeks, while literally starving all this time. After the end of the molt, the bird travels to the sea and, finally, feeds off, replenishing the forces and kilograms lost during the shift of the feather dress. After that, the representatives of this species return to the land for breeding future offspring.

For arranging their nests, penguins choose places that are well protected from direct sunlight, as well as predators that can come both from land and from the sea. The most common nest site is the guano deposits located along the coastline. The nest is located in a small hole in which the female lays eggs.

The number of eggs in one laying - up to 2 pcs. The process of incubation of eggs is carried out by both representatives of the pair, in turn. After the chicks hatching, the adult individuals also share the duties of feeding their offspring, which implies short-term immersion of birds in water for food, which are carried out at certain time intervals. Young chicks become independent after the first molt. The life expectancy of penguins in natural habitat is about 20 years.

Galapagos Penguin - description, habitat

Behavior of the species

Penguins are rather sensitive to representatives of the human race, the appearance of researchers or tourists in the nesting places of this species of bird, as a rule, violates the natural process of reproduction.Strange as it may sound, even the presence of a person at a sufficiently large distance (not less than 150 meters) causes an increase in pulse rate in penguins. In order to calm down, the bird will need at least half an hour to restore the emotional background and calm the rapid heartbeat.

In fact, penguins of this species are actively communicating with each other birds, as evidenced by the fact that these aquatic birds live in fairly large colonies (the exception is feeding time, during which penguins hunt alone in the water).

Non-nesting individuals of feeding penguins swim quite far, exploring the area and not returning to the place of settlement for quite a long time. Penguins engaged in feeding and raising offspring, as a rule, very rarely get out for night walks and spend less time in the water, giving all their strength and attention to the young.

Recent studies show that the Humboldt penguins have a rather keen sense of smell, which helps to quickly find both their burrow and offspring.

I would like to draw attention to the fact that representatives of this type of penguin are very dependent on the level of illumination.For example, in the twilight and darkness they can not find the prey necessary for food. Nevertheless, these waterfowl see well both in water and on land.

emperor penguin - description, habitat