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Magellanic Penguins are small black-and-white penguins. Their face is dominated by a black mask surrounded by a white band which, in turn, borders on a black cap, neck and back. Down the front they have two black bands on an otherwise white underside, the lower of which goes down the flanks. The upperside of the flippers is dark-grey, the underside white with some grey streaking. On the lores and around the eyes they have pink skin. Their irises are dark-brown. The strong bill is grey. Legs and feet are dark-grey to black.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Magellanic Penguin is available HERE .

When on land, Adelie Penguins live around the southern tip of South America, towards the Antarctic Peninsula. While mostly living in the Southern Ocean, they can at times be found up to -20 degrees southern latitude. They breed on offshore islands off southern South America.

In Australia are very rare vagrants, the only confirmed report being a beachwashed dead bird on the coastline of Phillip Island, VIC, in 1976.

Magellanic Penguins are non-flying pelagic birds that spend most of their time out in the open ocean and in coastal waters. Penguins can also spend much of their time on ice.

We have not seen Magellanic Penguins in Australia yet. The photos shown below were taken by C. Pears on the Falkland Islands in December 2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by C. Pears.