Macaroni Penguin

The macaroni penguin is a crested penguin species that breeds on subantarctic islands across the Southern Ocean, including South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, and the Falkland Islands, and is one of the most numerous penguin species in the world despite significant population declines. It is named for its bright orange-yellow crest feathers, which reminded early observers of the flamboyant macaroni fashion of eighteenth century England. It forms some of the largest and densest seabird colonies on Earth, with individual colonies sometimes holding hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs on steep, rocky slopes. It feeds mainly on krill, along with small fish and squid, diving from the surface in the nutrient-rich waters surrounding its breeding islands.