Chinstrap

Adelie

Gentoo

These are the classic black and white penguins of the Antarctic and cartoons. All three species are gregarious, breeding in colonies that sometimes can be huge. The plumage of all three species consists only of black and white.

Pygoscelis penguins are found mostly in the higher latitudes of the sub-Antarctic and the Antarctic. Of the three, Gentoo Penguins have the most northerly distribution and occur on most of the sub-Antarctic islands. Chinstrap Penguins breed a bit further south, breeding almost exclusively around the Antarctic Peninsula. Adelie Penguins reach further south than any other penguin. They have a circumpolar distribution and breed south of the polar front. There are a few colonies on the South Shetland Islands where the distributions of all three Pygoscelis species overlap and they breed together. In those colonies, Gentoo Penguins are the first to arrive, followed by Adelies and, later, by Chinstraps.