Antarctic Birds 

(other than penguins)

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Predatory skuas. When the hawk-like skuas fly over, penguin parents throw back their heads and bray to warn them away. The braying goes around the colony under the flying skua like The Wave passing around a football stadium. "I'm on guard! Don't come here!" the penguin parents call. Only they've done it so many thousands of times that it sounds more like "Yeah, yeah, I'm here. You know I'm still here. Keep flying."

Lurking sheathbill. Sheathbills don't have webbed feet and don't swim. They make a living by lurking amongst the penguins, waiting for a parent to begin reguritating krill for a chick. Tthen, just at the right second, the sheathbill jumps up and kicks the parent in the head, making it spill its krill on the ground, which the sheathbill snatches up.

Close-up of a sheathbill. They're kind of pigeon-like, with some bare, pink skin on their faces.

Adult kelp gull. Kelp gulls look like great black-backed gulls. But they only live in the extreme southern hemisphere.

Young kelp gull.

Kelp gull chicks. There are no dogs, cats, rats, foxes or any other kind of predator that might eat a chick. Kelp gull chicks can just walk around on the bare ground. They will never need to hide or run.

An arctic tern. Very small. They fly between the Arctic and the Antarctic, from pole to pole, as weather suggests.

A blue-eyed shag. The shags nest  right in with the penguins. Since they're all black and white birds, the shags are hard to see. Penguins can't fly, but shags can.