The Life Cycle of Penguins:  Juvenile to Adult

As soon as chicks have moulted into their juvenile plumage and lost all trace of the downy coat they had as a chick they head out to sea to fend for themselves.  This is a difficult time. The juveniles must quickly learn where to find and how to catch their own food as well as how to avoid the predators in the water.  This is one of the most dangerous times for penguins, in practice many juvenile penguins die during their first few months of independence.  In most species less than half the juveniles that go out to sea each year survive into adulthood.

In some species where the adults habitually return to land every night,  juveniles will usually come ashore most nights.  In other species where the adults only come ashore in the breeding season, the juveniles tend not to return to the colonies until they are ready to breed themselves.  Where juveniles do come back to the colonies on a regular basis, they are very often disruptive and may be chased away by adult birds.

After one year the juveniles moult again and now start to look very much more like their parents.  In the crested penguins the crests may take three or more years to develop fully, and in the Kings and Emperors, the colouration deepens over the first few years.  At two years old the juveniles usually return to the colony where they were born and start to think about breeding themselves.  However, it will generally take one or two seasons for them to find a mate and manage to incubate an egg successfully.