Black Penguin
December 30, 2008
We have a few odd-colored birds among the 300,000 penguins at Cape Crozier. Two of them have names: the blondest one we call Blondie and the blackest one Blackie, or Black Penguin, to be politically correct (both have returned year after year to the same nests), but a few other oddballs are scattered around. So far, we’ve seen two all-black penguins, several light blond-colored ones, a nearly all-white bird David found yesterday (dubbed the “Ghost Penguin” or maybe “Platinum”), and a full albino chick. None of the other penguins seem to notice the weird colors, though; most of the abnormally-plumaged individuals have successful nests.
I stopped to take a couple photos of one of the all-black penguins today. It was busy flirting with a slick-looking chick (er, adult female) and didn’t seem to notice me at all.
Black Penguin
Black Penguin On Its Nest