COLD DAY IN THE SUN

The most numerous bird on Antarctica, the Adélie is well adapted to its harsh home

- Mike Dilger's WILDLIFE SPECTACLES The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in the world

THE ADÉLIE PENGUIN IS NAMED AFTER a slice of Antarctica called Adélie Land. This is itself a reference to the wife – Adèle – of the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who discovered the species to science in 1840 (though it's now considered an unfashionable practice to name a species after any one person).

Along with the emperor, the Adélie is one of only two species of penguin to make the Antarctic continent its true home, though honourable mentions must also go to the chinstraps, gentoos and macaronis breeding on the decidedly less harsh tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Considered middling in size within the penguin world, the Adélie combines a black head, back and throat with snowy white underparts and a conspicuous white eye-ring surrounding a black iris.

With both sexes similarly dressed to impress, the only way the females can be distinguished is by virtue of their smaller beaks and wings (and lighter weight).