Penguins, Petrels, and Prions: Top Antarctica Bird Tour Spots

by Oceanwide Expeditions Blog

If anyone ever tells you Antarctica is for the birds, they’re right.

Regiones: Antártida

Destacados: Avistaje de aves

Your best bets for Antarctic birdwatching

If anyone tells you Antarctica is for the birds, they’re right.

But only if they mean it literally, because birdwatchers and polar enthusiasts are well aware that Antarctica is one of the best birding hotspots on the planet.

Not only is Antarctica the only place you can see the eight polar penguin species, it’s also where some of the most beloved flying (and in some cases, very far-flying) seabirds can be found, which we’ve discussed in great detail in our Birds of the South entry.

But what Antarctic locations give you best odds of spotting these winged beauties? Well, straighten your tripods and spit-shine your lenses, because we’re about to tell you.

Image by Ilja Reijnen

The Drake Passage

Some of your best bird-spotting opportunities will take place before you even get to Antarctica.

After embarking from Ushuaia and entering the Drake Passage, you’ll pass what is known as the Antarctic Convergence, a natural boundary formed by north-flowing cold waters colliding with warmer sub-Antarctic waters.

This puts you in the circum-Antarctic upwelling zone, where the marine life and bird life undergoes a shift.

In this nutrient-rich area, you may see wandering albatrosses, grey-headed albatrosses, black-browed albatrosses, light-mantled sooty albatrosses, cape pigeons, southern fulmars, Wilson’s storm petrels, blue petrels, and Antarctic petrels, to name a few.

Image by Ross Wheeler

Danco Island

This starkly beautiful Antarctic island offers you the chance to see nesting gentoo penguins, to say nothing of the Weddell and crabeater seals to be found nearby.

Port Lockroy & Jougla Point

After sailing through Neumayer Channel, you may get a chance to visit this former British research station, now a museum and post office, as well as Jougla Point. Here you have good odds of seeing gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags.

Half Moon Island

You may see chinstrap penguins (and Weddell seals) near Cámara Base, an Argentine scientific research station located on Half Moon Island.

Cuverville Island

This small, precipitous island between the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula and Rongé Island houses a large colony of gentoo penguins as well as breeding brown skuas.

Petermann & Pléneau Islands

These Antarctic islands, located in the Penola Strait just south of the Lemaire Channel, provide a great variety of birdlife, such as gentoo penguins. As for non-bird wildlife, leopard seals, crabeater seals, minke whales, and humpbacks may also be seen here.

Deception Island

Actually a subducted crater, this island in the South Shetlands opens into the sea and creates a natural harbor for the ship. Multiple bird species can be spotted here, such as cape petrels, kelp gulls, brown and south polar skuas, and Antarctic terns.

Wilson’s storm petrels and black-bellied storm petrels also nest in the ruins of the whaling station in Whalers Bay.

Fish Islands

You can encounter one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s southernmost Adélie penguin and blue-eyed shag colonies in the Fish Islands.

Image by Wim van Passel

Antarctic Sound

There are sometimes emperors and Adélie penguins on the ice floes here, as well as kelp gulls, skuas, and various breeds of petrel. The area is also very scenic in terms of landscape, with jagged mountain peaks and enormous walls of ice lying shattered on their slopes.

Brown Bluff

Located in the Antarctic Sound, Brown Bluff is perhaps the most scenic location in the entire northern tip of the Antarctic Continent:  sheer canyon walls, fallen boulders, beautiful volcanic creations capped with ice.

Added to which, a large Adélie penguin rookery lives here, with gentoo penguins and nesting snow petrels also to be found.

Gourdin Island

Chinstraps, gentoos, and Adélie penguins are a few of the seabirds that love this island, which is found just around the corner from the northwestern entrance to Antarctic Sound. 

Devil Island

Home to a large colony of Adélie penguins, Devil Island offers a magnificent vantage point for hikers willing to foot it to the top of the hill. Melting ice sometimes forms a waterfall dropping from the cliffs close to Cape Well-met.

Image by Victoria Salem

Snow Hill Island (rare)

Helicopters allow us to reach the famed emperor penguin colony found here, but nature makes the rules in Antarctica: If conditions aren’t favorable, we can’t take the risk of flying.

If they are, however, you’ll spend about two days at this coveted penguin rookery.

The helicopter operation takes a full day, and the flight duration is approximately 15 minutes. Each helicopter can accommodate 4 – 6 passengers per flight, and the landing site is carefully chosen so that the penguins are not disturbed.

Upon arrival, it’s about a 45-minute walk to the rookery and what is perhaps the most endearing congregation of emperor penguins (and chicks) in all Antarctica.

Image by Franklin Braeckman

Title image by Pascale Sury

Cruceros relacionados

Desde Santa Elena a Cabo Verde
Hasta US$650 de descuento

Desde Santa Elena a Cabo Verde

Sea testigo de la migración primaveral hacia el norte

HDS32-24 Durante los días en el mar las posibilidades de encontrar ballenas son altas. Sea testigo de la migración primaveral hacia el norte de aves nórdicas como los charranes árticos y los skúas de cola larga que se unen a nosotros para cruzar la “Línea del...

m/v Hondius

El Hondius

Fecha del crucero:

20 abr. - 30 abr., 2024

Amarres a partir de

2150 USD

Islas Malvinas – Georgias del Sur – Península Antártica

Cumplir al menos seis especies de pingüino!

PLA20-24 Un crucero a las islas Malvinas, las islas Georgias del Sur y la Península Antártica. Visite una de la más bellas exhibiciones de vida silvestre sobre la Tierra. Este viaje le permitirá conocer al menos 6 especies de pingüinos ¡y una gran cantidad de...

m/v Plancius

El Plancius

Fecha del crucero:

18 oct. - 7 nov., 2024

Amarres a partir de

13350 USD

Mar de Weddell – En busca del pingüino Emperador, incl. Helicópteros

En busca de los Pingüinos Emperador

OTL22-24 Una verdadera expedición, nuestro crucero al Mar de Weddell explorará el hábitat del pingüino Emperador en las proximidades de la isla Cerro Nevado. Visitaremos el área en helicópteros y veremos una variedad de otras aves que incluyen pingüinos Adelia...

m/v Ortelius

El Ortelius

Fecha del crucero:

10 nov. - 20 nov., 2024

Amarres a partir de

12100 USD

Mar de Weddell – En busca del pingüino Emperador, incl. Helicópteros

En busca de los Pingüinos Emperador

OTL23-24 Una verdadera expedición, nuestro crucero al Mar de Weddell explorará el hábitat del pingüino Emperador en las proximidades de la isla Cerro Nevado. Visitaremos el área en helicópteros y veremos una variedad de otras aves que incluyen pingüinos Adelia...

m/v Ortelius

El Ortelius

Fecha del crucero:

20 nov. - 30 nov., 2024

Amarres a partir de

12100 USD

Antártida - Viaje de descubrimiento y aprendizaje + taller de navegación.

Antártida clásica que incluye la isla Decepción

OTL24-24 Este viaje a la Península Antártica y las islas Shetland del Sur lo lleva a un paisaje de oscura roca escarpada, nieve puramente blanca y una fantástica variedad de vida silvestre. Venga a saludar a las ballenas, focas y miles de pingüinos.

m/v Ortelius

El Ortelius

Fecha del crucero:

30 nov. - 10 dic., 2024

Amarres a partir de

7900 USD

Loading