--- title: "King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Sub-Antarctic penguin with an orange neck patch reaching its upper breast, second largest of all penguins, and a deep diver: tracked birds have gone past 240 meters." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/king-penguin-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-27" --- # King Penguin (*Aptenodytes patagonicus*) > **Status**: Checked against 9 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Sub-Antarctic penguin with an orange neck patch reaching its upper breast, second largest of all penguins, and a deep diver: tracked birds have gone past 240 meters. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Neo-Classical & Baroque Chamber // Yann Tiersen, "Comptine d'un autre été, l'après-midi" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/14rZjW3RioG7WesZhYESso) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znfYwABeSZ0) > **Vibe Match**: Solo piano with the two hands playing separate lines at once, for a bird whose call carries two frequencies together: each half of its two-part syrinx produces sound independently. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Aptenodytes patagonicus* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-3.rlts.t22697748a184637776.en)) - **Superpower**: Carries its single egg on its feet for about 54 days, and tracked birds have dived past 240 meters. - **Habitat**: Sub-Antarctic islands mainly surrounding Antarctica, such as South Georgia, Crozet and Kerguelen, and the Southern Ocean waters, where they tend to keep north of the pack ice to fish - **Diet**: Myctophid lanternfish, squid, and the occasional crustacean - **Tags**: bird, penguin, ocean, antarctic, carnivore, social-colony ## Natural History & Behavior ## Second in Size Only to the Emperor The king penguin (*Aptenodytes patagonicus*) is a large bird, but smaller and slimmer than the only other member of its genus, the emperor penguin, and it is the second largest of all penguin species. Adults stand 85 to 95 centimetres tall and weigh between 9.3 and 17.3 kilograms, averaging 11.8 kilograms. Its head is nearly black, with a spoon-shaped orange patch on each side, and a stripe on its lower beak reflects ultraviolet light, which is thought to signal sexual maturity, health or social standing. Young birds do not reach full adult colouring until they are three years old, and chicks are simply dark brown before their first molt. A banded wild king penguin has been recorded living to at least 27 years old. ## The Long Commute King penguins breed mainly on sub-Antarctic islands such as South Georgia, the Falklands, Crozet and Kerguelen, with no colonies found south of 60 degrees S latitude, and they tend to keep north of the pack ice, where the related emperor penguin takes over further south. They have been known to travel up to 500 kilometres from their colonies to feed. Tracking three king penguins over four- to eight-day trips at sea, researchers logged 2,595 dives: half went past 50 metres, and two passed 240 metres. At Marion Island, fish made up 87% of what king penguins ate by weight, mostly small lanternfish, with squid filling most of the rest and crustaceans barely registering. ## Feet Instead of a Nest A king penguin is one of only two penguin species that do not build a nest. The female lays a single egg, which is transferred to the male's feet and incubated for about 54 days under a warm fold of belly skin, with both parents trading shifts of five to 22 days. By the end of his first shift, a father has typically lost 30% of his body weight, and males nearing a critical mass of about 10 kilograms must choose between abandoning the egg or holding out for the mother's return. Raising one chick to independence takes 14 to 16 months. Successful parents do not start again until their chick has fledged, so they begin the next season late and usually fail, but that failure lets them breed earlier the year after. > **Molt** is when a king penguin grows new feathers, a month-long stage that opens each breeding cycle for both parents. A study of seven molting birds found their body mass fell by 58% over 41 days of fasting, from an average of 18 kilograms. ## One Voice Among Many King penguin colonies are noisy, and with no nest or landmark to meet at, parents call to locate their chicks. The calls carry two frequencies at once, made by the syrinx, a two-part voice organ whose halves each produce sound independently. Chicks are thought to pick out the lower of the two frequencies, which carries farther through the noise, and to learn their parent's call in their first five weeks of life. Antarctic and sub-Antarctic fur seals, leopard seals and killer whales prey on adults, while brown skuas and giant petrels take chicks. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How long can a king penguin hold its breath on a dive? Long enough to make a swimming pool look easy. Tracking devices on king penguins at the Crozet Islands showed that 95% of dives lasted less than 6 minutes, and about two-thirds lasted less than 4. At other times the birds dived over and over for up to 5 hours straight, with each dive lasting around 5 minutes and roughly a minute and a half at the surface in between. *(Source: [Culik et al. 1996]())* ### Do king penguins keep the same mate every year? Not reliably. King penguins have a lower rate of staying with the same partner than smaller penguin species. Nobody knows for sure why, but fat storage is one likely explanation. A bird that starts building up fat too early becomes an easier target for predators, and one that waits too long risks missing its mate's return to the colony, so a pair that doesn't arrive together can split up or delay breeding. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### Does the beak's UV spot actually help king penguins find a mate? Possibly. Researchers found ultraviolet peaks on the beak spots of king and emperor penguins that are missing in juveniles, and among free-ranging king penguins, birds that had just paired up showed higher UV reflectance than ones still courting, suggesting the spot may play a role in pairing and signal sexual maturity. *(Source: [Jouventin et al. 2005]())* ### Do king penguins eat the same amount of fish all year round? No, the mix shifts with the seasons. At Marion Island, fish made up about 68% of what king penguins ate in winter but rose to almost 100% in summer, probably because the fish were easier to find. Three small lanternfish species and a squid called Kondakovia longimana were the most common prey, and a meal ran from 8.5 to 12.6% of an adult's body mass. *(Source: [Adams & Klages 1987]())* ## Sources 1. [Aptenodytes patagonicus (king penguin). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 2. [AnAge entry for Aptenodytes patagonicus. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, Human Ageing Genomic Resources.]() 3. [Martínez, Jutglar & Garcia (2020). King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus). Birds of the World.]() 4. [Aptenodytes patagonicus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T22697748A184637776.]() 5. [Kooyman et al. (1982). Diving Depths and Energy Requirements of King Penguins. Science.]() 6. [Culik et al. (1996). Diving Energetics in King Penguins (Aptenodytes Patagonicus). Journal of Experimental Biology.]() 7. [Adams & Klages (1987). Seasonal variation in the diet of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) at sub‐Antarctic Marion Island. Journal of Zoology.]() 8. [Jouventin et al. (2005). Ultraviolet Beak Spots in King and Emperor Penguins. The Condor.]() 9. [Cherel, Leloup & Le Maho (1988). Fasting in king penguin. II. Hormonal and metabolic changes during molt. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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