The king penguin has markings similar to emperors, but he is smaller (85 centimetres) and lighter (15 kilogram). His neck and shoulders are silver grey, the tip of the back feathers are dark blue. He attracts even more attention than the emperor penguin because the lower part of the beak is more pink and he has more orange colouring on his breast. There are about two million king penguins in Antarctica. The king penguin lays only one egg. Male and female hatch it in turn. They incubate it on their feet. With the egg lying on the feet, the penguin can move if necessary (in case of danger for instance). Contrary to the emperor penguin, who stays on the shelf ice, king penguins also hatch on Subantarctic islands. The breeding colonies are on slopes that are populated the whole year. Among the king penguins are early and late breeders. The early ones lay their egg in November and the chicks are born half January. The late breeders only start in January. In March the eggs are hatched out. The young penguins stay in the colony all winter long. They sit close together in crèches to keep warm. When they migrate to the sea in January, other penguins already start breeding again. King penguins incubate generally only once in two years. Some couples manage to hatch two eggs in three years.

Geographic Distribution