Mystic Aquarium

The live camera feed has ended for the season. Thanks for watching!

The penguin chick's first swim is Tuesday, May 1 at 11 a.m.

It’s nesting season at Mystic Aquarium! Our live penguin webcam allows you to watch Green Red (male) and Green Green (female) serve as foster parents to our new chick, hatched on January 28. Often you will see one parent on the nest while the other parent is on exhibit to feed, groom and clean, mimicking what happens in the wild.

During the first 40 days, the little one is unable to maintain its body heat, so it seeks warmth under its parents. Viewers will see its head and beak emerge when it's hungry and when its parents feed it. Later in this period, the inquisitive chick will slowly venture on its own into other areas of their room. Once it's weaned (around day 50), people can observe the aquarium’s trainers teaching the chick to feed from them. At 75 to 100 days of age, the chick will be fully fledged. Its soft down will be replaced with juvenile plumage, and it will be ready to fend for itself. The fledgling will join the adult African penguins on exhibit at the aquarium.

The chick's gender will be determined by a DNA test at approximately six months of age. Green Silver (male) and Blue Gray (female) participate in the Species Survival Plan and are the chick's biological parents. Foster parenting is common practice to cultivate parenting experience.