Their beak is black with some white spots and a callous pink area all around the base of the beak and reaching their brown with red eyes. Their legs are black and pink with large claws. Young, or developing individuals do not have the patterns described above well defined, and the color of their plumage is lighter than adults.
Hatchlings have soft, thin gray feathers on their chest and light yellow in their bellies. The climate they inhabit is warm in some areas, and intense sunlight increases their body temperature. The rocky habitat of those places made them excellent climbers used to perform jumps with both legs balancing themselves with the help of their flippers. They cohabit without problem with larger birds, such as pelicans. Humboldt penguins found in Peruvian colonies are sedentary while those in Chile are absent from their colonies from March to August.
They usually stay close to their colonies when diving into the ocean, going only between 5 and 20 miles away. While hunting, they can stay underwater for 60 to seconds and hardly go deeper than 88 ft, reaching a maximum depth of ft in extreme situations.
Their vocalizations vary according to the circumstance; either to show aggression, recognize family members, courtship or group coordination. Both partners emit a sound very similar to donkey braying and often show nervous behavior when they feel the inconvenience of an unwanted presence.
Penguins with colonies in Peru molt in January, while those in Chile start in February. The molting process lasts only ten days, but it is a challenging experience for them because of the intense heat of those months, regardless the short time of the molting process, if compared with other species.
During that period, they spend most of their time sleeping to preserve energy and keep their metabolism slow. MIGRATION: When not raising chicks, these penguins have been known to travel long distances at sea to find food, especially in recent years as prey species become increasingly scarce.
Females lay one or two eggs, which are incubated for about 40 days by both parents, but one chick often dies of starvation. Chicks fledge after about 70 to 90 days and molt into adult feather about a year later. THREATS: Humboldt penguin populations were first devastated by the mining of guano deposits — in which the species prefers to nest — for fertilizer. But like all penguins, they have a special gland that removes salt from their bodies after they swallow saltwater.
The underwater world requires different eyesight than the one we're used to. So penguin eyes are sensitive to the colors of the sea -- violets, blues, and greens. Their eyes also have a second transparent eyelid, serving as "goggles" while the animal is underwater.
Humboldts penguins have developed a unique place to lay their eggs - - they dig them into the layers of dried guano poop left from seabirds! Because of the dry climate, guano from generations of birds can build up many feet deep. Sometimes they also nest in rocky crevices. The birds breed throughout the year, though breeding seems to depend on the availability of food and nesting sites.
The male arrives at a site a few days before the female and prepares the nest burrow. He uses his wings and feet to push and mold the guano into the shape he wants, then gathers soil, rocks, and sometimes grasses to finish it off. After mating, the female lays two white eggs. Both parents take turns sitting on the eggs until they hatch, usually in about 39 days. The pair also works together to feed the chicks. Sadly, the breeding habits of the Humboldt penguin are being disrupted by human activity.
Because guano has value as a fertilizer, miners in South America harvest it down to the bare rock, leaving many coastal areas scraped clean. Humboldts are left with nothing to burrow into, so they hatch far fewer babies. It's not easy being a Humboldt penguin: the birds face a number of natural and man-made hazards.
In the ocean, leopard seals, fur seals, sea lions, sharks, and killer whales all prey on Humboldts. On land, their eggs and chicks can fall victim to foxes, snakes, and introduced predators like cats and dogs.
Weather conditions also pose problems. Humboldt penguins also face a number of threats from humans, due in large part to the productive areas they inhabit. Commercial fishermen are attracted to the highly fertile Pacific waters off South America, where rich nutrients support large fish populations.
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