![]() From the front, the two crests spread out as a ‘V’. Thin yellow eyebrow stripes start near the nostrils and spread into crests behind the red-brown eyes. ![]() The robust orange bill has prominent pink skin around the base. It has a black back, face and throat, sharply demarcated from white underparts. The Snares crested penguin is a medium-sized crested penguin, about three times larger than the familiar little penguin. Are these birds reproductively isolated, and therefore a cryptic species? However, despite 20-30 of the latter visiting the Snares Islands each breeding season, the two species have never been found interbreeding.Īn enduring mystery of the Snares crested penguin is why birds in the tiny population on the Western Chain islets, 3 km south-west of the main islands, breed 6 weeks later than the birds on North East and Broughton Islands. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Fiordland crested penguin. Moulting birds may occur on any of the subantarctic islands and north to Cook Strait. The Snares crested penguin has the most restricted breeding distribution of all the crested penguin species, being endemic to the 300 ha Snares Islands group. The Snares crested penguin is one of eight similar-looking species of crested penguins, all of which have occurred in New Zealand, and four of which breed here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |