Cameras Catch Hatching Penguin At Oregon Zoo

Spring has sprung.

The hatching of a baby penguin was recently caught on camera, zookeepers at the Oregon Zoo announced Wednesday.

Oregon Zoo

This baby "hatchling" is one of five at the Oregon Zoo after four years.

This baby hatchling is one of five at the Oregon Zoo — ending its four-year run as a baby-penguin-free-zone.

The zoo stopped breeding penguins there while remodeling their "penguinarium," which reopened in November.

The Humboldt penguin hatchling was spotted as zookeepers were doing a routine check of the eggs in the nesting box. When they looked at the egg, the penguin was nearly done hatching.

"Usually, we don’t get to see an egg hatch — that happens inside the nest box, underneath the parents — but we were lucky enough to watch this one," the zoo's senior bird keeper Gwen Harris said.

Five new chicks should be on display for visitors this summer, according to a press release. That's when they are expected to "fledge" and emerge from the nest box. They'll be easy to spot. Zoo officials say they'll be grayish brown all over and won't have the distinctive black and white coloring for a couple of years.

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