Spheniscus magellanicus (Forster, 1781) VA

Lima, Rafael Dantas, Silveira, Luís Fábio, Lemos, Renata Constant de Amorim, Lobo-Araújo, Lahert William, Andrade, Arthur Barbosa de, Francisco, Mercival Roberto & Efe, Márcio Amorim, 2022, An annotated avian inventory of the Brazilian state of Alagoas, one of the world’s most threatened avifauna, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 62, pp. 1-36 : 6

Spheniscus magellanicus

Dantas et al. (2013) suggested that the species has recently extended its winter range northward. However, they stated that the species had never been recorded before 2008 in Alagoas, when in fact it had been recorded in the state since the 1950s ( Teixeira et al., 1988). It is not so clear whether the birds that arrive in Alagoas are just vagrants or birds that have extended their winter range, but Magellanic Penguins beached in the region are not uncommon and thus the latter option may be valid (as advocated by Dantas et al., 2013). For instance, a monitoring program found 53 individuals beached between PiaÇabuÇu, Alagoas, and Conde, Bahia, between 2010 and 2015 ( Almeida et al., 2019).