African penguins closely resemble the Galapagos penguins of the Pacific Ocean and Humboldt penguins and Magellanic penguins of South America.
African penguins resemble their close relatives, other species in the genus Spheniscus, including Galapagos penguins of the Pacific Ocean (Spheniscus mendiculus) and Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti) and Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) of South America. The four Spheniscus species share similar size and plumage characteristics.
Simple characteristics allow the four different species of the genus Spheniscus.
Galapagos penguins have a much thinner white horseshoe-shaped marking at the back of the head than African penguins.
Humboldt penguins have much more pink bare skin that resides over the eyes and around the beak than African penguins.
Magellanic penguins show a double black breast-band, rather than the single black breast-band of the African penguin.
• Image | © Robin Atherton, Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
• Sources | (BirdLife International, 2016; Cooper, 1978; Pearce, 2011; Stefoff, 2005)
