Royal Penguins

Photo by Lin Padgham

Royal penguins may look the funniest of all their cousins because of their riot of long yellow feathers that sit on top of their head. While they probably don’t mean to look amusing, no one can look at a Royal penguin and not crack a smile.

Photo by Lin Padgham

Royal penguins live on Macquarie Island, which is found in the Northern Ocean between New Zealand and Antarctica. Weighing less than ten pounds, these little penguins make up for their lack of size with a majestic name. They live grouped together in clusters called ‘colonies’, sometimes numbering into the hundreds of thousands.

Royal penguins are, of course, black and white like other penguin species. They are sub-species of crested penguins, which means they have feathered eyebrows or tufts of feathers on the top of their heads. The Royals have a very colorful head, topped with a cluster of bright yellow feathers that extend from their eyebrows to over the top of their heads. With their bright orange beaks and white chins, they look very funny indeed.

Royals can swim very fast, up to 20 miles an hour! That’s faster than most kids can ride on their bikes, no matter how hard they peddle. They can dive between 50 and 150 feet down into dark ocean waters looking for their favorite foods, fish and krill.

After their babies hatch, male penguins guard them for three or four weeks, or until the chicks are big enough to join the ‘nursery’. There, they all stand together for warmth and safety.

A very interesting thing about Royal penguins is that they spend most of their year swimming at sea, and only stay on Macquarie Island to breed and lay their eggs. They will swim from the island to Antarctica and as far north to the Tasman Sea.