While visiting Half Moon Island, photographer Brian Bailey was happily snapping photos of a chinstrap penguin colony when something odd caught his eye.
He hadn't visited the spot in a month, and the chicks had grown noticeably — but two in particular looked very different.
“I was scanning the colony and saw this adult and her two chicks,” Bailey told The Dodo. “From my angle, they looked absolutely headless … and hilarious.”
Bailey froze, unsure of what he was even looking at. The two fluffy chicks were standing upright like normal penguins — except their heads appeared to be completely missing.
After a long, bewildered second, the truth clicked, and Bailey burst out laughing.
“Went all the way to Antarctica … found these … things,” he joked.
The mystery wasn’t sinister at all — just perfectly timed penguin behavior. As Bailey explained, penguins (like many birds) sometimes sleep with their heads twisted around and tucked against their backs.
While adults doing it is already funny, seeing two fuzzy chicks in that position made them look like strange headless blobs straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Bailey’s timing created an optical illusion that has confused and delighted everyone who's seen the photos.
“The shot has brought confusion, speculation, bewilderment and laughs,” Bailey said. People have compared the chicks to everything from old-school Furbys to Star Wars Porgs — and Bailey admits the Porg comparison is pretty perfect.
He set out to capture adorable baby penguins, and instead came home with a once-in-a-lifetime collection of bizarre, headless-looking birds — and a story he’ll be telling forever.
