diagnostics
71 cm; 5-6 kg. A fairly large penguin with filamentous yellow, crest-like plumes on forehead typical of Eudyptes. Sexes alike. Upperparts and throat blue-black. Underparts white. Flippers black dorsally, with thin white trailing edge; ventrally white, with black tip and black basal leading edge. Long feather plumes extend from forehead along sides of head to meet above eyes, forming broad, loose crest. Obvious gape distinctly pink, fleshy and angled. Bill larger in males; red-brown. Eyes dull red. Legs and feet pink. Juvenile similar except for greyer eyes, grey tones on chin and throat and lack of distinct crest feathers (Marchant and Higgins 1990).
trophic
During October, Macaroni Penguins return to breed at Marion Island, in colonies which range from small numbers of birds to the two large colonies that presently each hold greater than 100 000 pairs and formerly held greater than 200 000 pairs (Crawford et al. 2003, 2009). Breeding areas usually have little or no vegetation due to erosion by birds. Traditional paths are used to access colonies (BM Dyer pers. obs.). At Marion Island, Macaroni Penguins mostly breed for the first time when four years old (Crawford et al. 2003). Males arrive for breeding several days earlier than females. Both sexes undertake substantial fasts during courtship and breeding (Marchant and Higgins 1990). Pairs lay two eggs from late October to mid November, but only the larger second eggs produce fledged chicks, which leave the island by the end of February (Crawford et al. 2003). Incubation takes 34-39 days (Williams 1981). After breeding, Macaroni Penguins go to sea to fatten for about a month before returning to islands to moult, when they remain ashore for 20-30 days to replace all their feathers (Williams 1981). They then depart to over-wintering grounds to regain condition. At Marion Island, Macaroni Penguins feed mainly on crustaceans (euphausiids and amphipods), fish (mostly myctophids) and cephalopods (Brown and Klages 1987) with composition of prey changing as chicks develop. The median trip duration of adults provisioning chicks was 22.8 hours and most dives were less than 10 m (Pichegru et al. 2011).
