Galapagos Penguin

The Galapagos Penguin breaks the most basic rule people know about penguins: that they live in the cold south. This small, hardy seabird is the only penguin species found north of the equator and the only one that breeds entirely in the tropics, nesting in shaded lava cracks on the Galapagos Islands while the equatorial sun beats down just outside. Its survival trick is oceanographic, not magical. The cool, nutrient-rich Cromwell and Humboldt currents well up around the western islands, chilling the inshore water and fueling dense schools of the small fish the penguins depend on.

It is also one of the rarest penguins in the world, with a population usually estimated in the low thousands and among the smallest of any penguin species. Numbers swing violently with ocean conditions: strong El Nino events warm the sea, collapse the fish supply, and can kill off a large share of the population in a single season, as happened in the early 1980s and again in the late 1990s. Add introduced cats and rats on land, and it is easy to see why the species is classed as Endangered. Yet it endures, and for visitors to the Galapagos, watching a penguin porpoise past a marine iguana remains one of the strangest and most memorable sights in birding.

The Galapagos Penguin is a small, compact member of the banded penguin genus Spheniscus, the same group as the Humboldt, Magellanic, and African Penguins. Adults are blackish above and white below, with a thin white line curving from behind the eye down around the cheeks to the throat, and a narrow, often broken black band across the upper breast. Within its island home it is unmistakable: no other penguin occurs anywhere near the Galapagos, so the real identification questions are age (adult versus dull juvenile) and, at a distance on the water, penguin versus other dark seabirds. Look for the low-slung swimming profile, the upright waddle on lava rocks, and the small overall size, noticeably slighter than the mainland banded penguins.

Male vs. female

Males and females look essentially alike, both wearing the same blackish upperparts, white face line, and narrow chest band. Males average slightly larger and heavier, with a somewhat deeper, stouter bill, but the overlap is broad enough that a lone bird usually cannot be sexed by eye in the field. In a mated pair standing side by side, the male is often the marginally bulkier bird with the bigger head and bill, which is the same subtle pattern seen in the other Spheniscus penguins. Researchers working with the species typically rely on measurements or behavior rather than plumage to tell the sexes apart.

Juveniles

Juveniles are noticeably drabber than adults and can puzzle first-time Galapagos visitors. Young birds are dark gray to brownish above rather than crisp black, and they lack the adult's clean white face line and the black breast band; instead the face and cheeks are dusky gray, sometimes with a paler wash on the chin, and the underparts are plain whitish. The overall effect is a smudgy, two-toned penguin without the sharp banded pattern. Because the species can breed at almost any time of year when food is good, gray-faced juveniles may be seen alongside adults in any month. They gradually acquire the full banded adult plumage after molting.

Like its relatives, the Galapagos Penguin is a member of the group sometimes nicknamed "jackass penguins" for their voices, and the resemblance is real: the main call is a loud, braying, donkey-like series given at the nest and in colonies, used in courtship and to advertise ownership of a nest crevice. It is a wheezing, pumping bray that carries well across the water on calm nights, and much of the calling happens after dark, when the birds come ashore.

Around the colony, birds also give shorter honks and growls in disputes over nest sites, and softer, low contact notes between mates and between parents and chicks. Chicks beg with high, insistent peeping. At sea the birds are mostly quiet, so if you hear braying echoing off a lava cliff on Isabela or Fernandina, you have almost certainly found a colony.

The Galapagos Penguin is endemic to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador and has one of the smallest ranges of any penguin. The great majority of birds live around Isabela and Fernandina, the two westernmost islands, where the cold Cromwell Current strikes the archipelago and drives the upwelling that keeps inshore waters cool and fish-rich. Smaller numbers occur around Santiago, Bartolome, and a few other central islands. Birds on the northern tip of Isabela technically live in the Northern Hemisphere, making this the only penguin that naturally crosses the equator.

It is a strictly coastal, sedentary species. Penguins forage close to shore, usually within a few kilometers of the coast, and haul out on rocky shorelines, lava benches, and sea caves rather than open beaches. There is no migration; the same stretches of coast hold birds year-round, though foraging effort shifts with water temperature and prey abundance. During warm-water periods birds may range a little more widely in search of fish, but they never leave the archipelago.

Galapagos Penguins are pursuit divers that feed almost entirely on small schooling fish, chiefly sardines, anchovies, and mullet, along with some small crustaceans. They hunt by sight in the cool, clear inshore water, chasing fish in fast, agile dives that are typically shallow, often less than 10 meters, and usually stay within a few kilometers of the coast. They frequently forage in small groups and will join mixed feeding flocks, driving baitfish toward the surface where boobies, pelicans, and noddies plunge in from above.

Breeding is opportunistic rather than tied to a fixed calendar. Because food supply drives everything, pairs nest when fish are abundant and cool-water conditions are good, which can mean two or even three breeding attempts in a productive year and none at all in a bad one. Courtship involves mutual preening, bill-tapping, and the loud braying duets typical of banded penguins, and pairs often reunite year after year at the same site.

Nests are tucked into cracks, caves, and burrows in coastal lava, and sometimes under boulders or vegetation, always in shade that shields eggs and chicks from lethal equatorial heat. The female usually lays one or two eggs, laid a few days apart, and both parents share incubation for around 38 to 40 days as well as the long job of guarding and feeding the chicks. Raising two chicks to fledging is only possible when fish are plentiful; in leaner times the second chick rarely survives.

You cannot attract a Galapagos Penguin to a backyard; it lives only in one remote archipelago and never leaves. But it is one of the more reliable rare penguins to actually see, because a well-planned Galapagos trip puts you right in its habitat. Here is where and how to find one in the wild, plus the accredited institutions where the species is studied and displayed.

• Focus on the western islands, Isabela and Fernandina, which hold the great majority of the population; day trips and liveaboard cruises to these islands offer the best odds.
• Snorkel or take a panga (dinghy) tour around famous spots like Bartolome Island near Pinnacle Rock, Los Tuneles and Las Tintoreras off Isabela, and the shores of Elizabeth Bay, where penguins often swim alongside snorkelers.
• Go with a licensed Galapagos National Park naturalist guide; independent access to prime penguin sites is restricted, and cruises or Isabela-based tours are the practical way in.
• Time your visit for the cool, dry 'garua' season (roughly June to November), when stronger upwelling and cooler seas concentrate fish and make penguins more active and visible near shore.
• Watch for penguins resting on low lava rocks in the early morning and late afternoon and porpoising through the water during midday feeding bouts; scan waterlines from the boat as well as the shore.
• To see the species outside Ecuador, visit an accredited aquarium or zoo with a managed colony, such as the Sea World parks in the United States, which house Galapagos Penguins and support conservation research.

• Humboldt Penguin: A larger banded relative of the South American coast with a bolder single chest band and more extensive pink facial skin; ranges of the two do not overlap.
• Magellanic Penguin: A southern banded penguin with two black chest bands and a much larger body, breeding on southern South American coasts far from the Galapagos.
• African Penguin: Another Spheniscus penguin, of southern Africa, with a single chest band and pink facial skin; similar braying voice but no range overlap.