Birds
Chinstrap Penguin
Pygoscelis antarcticus · also called chinstrap
Marked by a thin black band running beneath its chin like a helmet strap, a chinstrap penguin gathers with hundreds of thousands of others on rocky Antarctic Peninsula slopes, forming some of the loudest and most crowded penguin colonies anywhere in the Southern Ocean.
Overview
The chinstrap penguin, Pygoscelis antarcticus, is a krill-eating seabird native to ocean, coastal, and polar habitat across the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding sub-Antarctic islands. Its distinctive helmet-strap marking, enormous and noisy breeding colonies, and reputation for aggression make it one of the more visually and behaviourally distinctive penguin species found anywhere in the Southern Ocean.
Safety and noise in enormous numbers
Few penguin species pack their breeding colonies as densely or as loudly as the chinstrap penguin, whose strategy of overwhelming numbers on exposed rocky slopes has proven remarkably successful across the Antarctic Peninsula, even as changing krill availability now tests that strategy in parts of its range.
Status
Least Concern, though populations have declined in some areas linked to changes in krill availability driven by warming Southern Ocean waters.
Chinstrap Penguin: common questions
Why is it called the chinstrap penguin?
This species has a thin black band of feathers running beneath its chin, resembling the strap of a helmet, a distinctive marking that gave the species its common name.
How large can a chinstrap penguin colony get?
This species forms some of the largest and loudest penguin colonies in the Southern Ocean, with individual breeding sites sometimes holding hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs at once.
Is the chinstrap penguin more aggressive than other penguins?
It has a reputation for being unusually aggressive and vocal compared with many other penguin species, particularly around its densely packed nesting sites during the breeding season.
Why are chinstrap penguin populations declining in some areas?
Populations have declined in parts of their range in recent decades, linked to changes in krill availability driven by warming Southern Ocean waters, even though the species overall remains numerous.