BIRDS
All the Antarctic birds have webbed feet, except for the Antarctic shag, and all of them migrate towards the north at the beginning of autumn.
The albatross, with various species, is often found in the Antarctic and stands out for his wingspan (up to 3.40 m) and his majestic gliding.
The petrel group is characterized by one or two nasal tubes on the beak. Among them, there are the giant petrel, the Cape Petrel, the grey petrel, the Antarctic Petrel, the Wilson petrel and the snow petrel, which is completely white.
Other fauna members are the blue eyed cormorant, the gull, the skua or brown gull and the South American stern that migrates from Pole to Pole and the Antarctic shag.
But of all Antarctic birds, penguins are the ones that attract the attention for their complete adaptation to the aquatic environment and their way of walking. They are also eminently social birds and they live in communities well over 150,000 individuals.
Of the 17 species of penguins that live on earth, only four build their nests in the Antarctic and of this four species, only two have a pan-Antarctic distribution. More common penguins from our Sector are those of medium size and they migrate at the end of the summer.
Adelie Penguin: head and black beak, with white edges skirting the eyes.
Antarctic Penguin or Chinstrap Penguin: so-called for his black feathers around the throat.
Gentoo Penguin: orange-red beak and paws, with a wide white stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head.
Emperor Penguin: 100-110 cm high, long and arched beak, at both sides of the neck they have an orange gold beard. Their weight reaches 25-30 kg. Their colonies are inside the Polar Circle and they generally live on the ice. They donīt build nest and they brood during the polar night.
Other common penguins outside the Antarctic sector wich only sometimes appear in the Antarctic during their migrations are: the King Penguin, of similar size to that of the emperor penguin, and the Macaroni Penguin and the Rockhopper Penguin, of medium size.
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