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Sometimes a photographer is just waiting for that one moment to take the picture of his life.
When the Belgian wildlife photographer Yves Adams embarked on a two-month expedition to Antarctica in December 2019, the wait for this unique moment came to an end.
When he wanted to photograph one of the largest king penguin colonies in the world on a South Georgian island, a probably unique yellow sea bird stepped in front of his lens, as the British newspaper "The Independent" reports.
During his time in Antarctica, he took thousands of pictures that he first had to sort out.
That's why the spectacular photo has only now been published.
This is what the yellow king penguin looks like:
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The Belgian wildlife photographer was quite lucky.
Normally there are so many cute tailcoats on the beach that it is hardly possible to get so close to a single bird.
Had he been only 50 meters away, the snapshot would probably never have been taken.
Simply because Adams would not have discovered the extraordinary penguin in the densely packed colony.
The photographer could hardly believe his luck, as he reports to "The Independent":
I have never seen or heard of a yellow penguin in my life.
There were 120,000 birds on this beach and that was the only yellow one.
Yves Adams, photographer
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King penguins are the second largest penguin species after the emperor penguins.
The birds can weigh up to 17 kilograms and reach a height of 95 centimeters.
They actually have black and white plumage and a striking yellow plumage on the neck.
The specimen that Adams photographed had instead a very light plumage, which was only colored yellow on the neck and head area.
That's behind the yellow king penguin
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The bird is likely to have the genetic defect leucism.
Such animals lack the cells that produce the dark pigment melanin.
Therefore their fur or plumage is white, the skin appears pink through it.
The unique penguin still has the typical yellow collar, but its feathers did not turn black, as usual, but white.
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