Macaroni Penguins…May update…… Eudyptes chrysolophus

Macaroni Penguins…May update….Living Coasts, Torquay.

The Macaroni penguins, having gone through their ‘ecstatic’ period, are now about to become parents. They will take turns sitting on the eggs. Two are usually laid with the first one being pushed out when the second larger egg is laid.

The female is sitting on her eggs, watched over by her one year old daughter and a very proud looking father.

Occasionally one of the penguins will add a twig or two or remove same, tidying the rather bare, stone filled, nest area.

The daughter, as befits a youngster, spends the day pruning and preening her brown and white plumage.

In the wild the Macaroni Penguins would be sharing their breeding grounds with up to 100,000 individuals. Here in Torquay’s Living Coasts they share the area with just a few other couples.
Despite this there are still quarrels if any males get too close to taken females, and pecking and braying and battering with flippers will occur.
So as to avoid confrontation the penguins walk through the area with head and shoulders hunched, their feathers flat and with their flippers pulled close to their bodies.

Macaroni Penguins…Living Coast, Torquay, Devon…. Eudyptes chrysolophus

Macaroni Penguins…Living Coast, Torquay, Devon.

Macaroni penguins live from the subantarctic to the antarctic peninsula.
The face, back and flippers of this flightless bird are black…the belly white. The head has a bright yellow, wispy crest, red and pink beak and black eyes. The feet and legs of this penguin are soft pink.They eat krill, crustaceans and small fish.

These penguins are sociable and in the wild live in large colonies. The penguins here live together in a small stony area in Living Coasts, Torquay.
Although the space is in my opinion too small, the penguins seem to make the best of it and are breeding, so must be fairly content.

Seeing the Macaronis in their ‘ecstatic display’ as they flirt, make braying noises and wave their heads from side to side, is quite a sight.

Then;

Afterwards these penguins stood together looking quite content. Two eggs may be laid in the next few weeks. Chicks will follow shortly after.

There has been a decrease in populations in recent years and Macaroni Penguins
are classed as vulnerable.

English sailors apparently named the species for its yellow head crest….
People in the 18th century who wore bright, fancy clothing were labelled a “maccaroni” or “macaroni”. English sailors who first saw the penguins in the Falkland Islands thought they looked flamboyant with their bright yellow crest so named them Macaronis..