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The 'Macaroni Penguin' (''Eudyptes chrysolophus'') is a species of penguin closely related to the Royal Penguin
It is a black and white penguin with yellow and black plumes on the top of its head. It generally lays two eggs, eating the first. It averages at about 5 kg (11 lbs) and 50-70 cm (20-28 in) tall. It eats squid, krill and other crustaceans. The egg hatches around 34 days after it is laid.

Contents

Range

Status

Name

References

External links

Range

The Macaroni Penguin is the most numerous of all the world's penguins, with an estimated world population of over 9 million breeding pairs. It breeds in at least 216 colonies at 50 sites, including southern Chile, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, Prince Edward Islands of South Africa, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and very locally on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Status

Despite its large population, the Macaroni Penguin has been classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife International, as its population has been reduced by at least 30% over three generations. The main threats to its breeding grounds are those common to all Southern Ocean species, such as the existing and potential impact of commercial fishing, ocean warming and oil pollution.

Name

The name "''Macaroni''" is said to be a reference to the bird's conspicuous "feather in its cap", as in the song ''Yankee Doodle'', in which the subject sticks "a feather in his cap and calls it Macaroni."

References

★ Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable

External links

★ ARKive - images and movies of the macaroni penguin ''(Eudyptes chrysolophus)''

★ 70South - more info on the Macaroni penguin

★ Macaroni penguins page from the International Penguin Conservation Web Site

★ www.pinguins.info : information about all species of penguins

★ Penguin World: Macaroni penguin