15 penguin pictures that will absolutely melt your heart

You can tell this is a rockhopper penguin because of the distinctive crest of spiky yellow and black feathers that adorns its head.

Discover 30 of the weirdest animals around the world.

“The adult penguin will partially digest the fish or other food,” explains Sciencing.com. It can take several hours, but once the penguin determines the food’s been digested enough, it’s coughed back up and fed to the chick. The penguins pictured here are king penguins (king penguin chicks are born brown, and when they get older, they moult, and their feathers are replaced with their distinctive adult coat).

Pictures of animals taking care of their young are, more often than not, pictures of female animals. Not so with penguin pictures. Here, a male Adélie penguin, native to Antarctica, shares in the egg-sitting duties.

If you guessed someplace south of the equator, you’re probably right, except that this happens to be a photo of a Galapagos penguin, the only species of penguin known to venture north of the equator.

Sign up here to have Reader’s Digest’s favourite stories straight to your inbox.

Source: RD.com