King Penguin

How to identify it

1. Second-largest penguin
2. Bright orange comma-shaped ear patches
3. Chicks are fluffy and brown

Voice

Trumpeting calls.

Listen to recordings on xeno-canto

Where to see it

• Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay, South Georgia

Destination guides featuring this bird

Australia Macquarie Island A windswept ridge in the Southern Ocean with millions of penguins.

1. JJanuary: Best
2. FFebruary: Best
3. MMarch: Poor or no data
4. AApril: Poor or no data
5. MMay: Poor or no data
6. JJune: Poor or no data
7. JJuly: Poor or no data
8. AAugust: Poor or no data
9. SSeptember: Poor or no data
10. OOctober: Poor or no data
11. NNovember: Best
12. DDecember: Best

South Georgia South Georgia Beaches packed with King Penguins and breeding albatrosses.

1. JJanuary: Best
2. FFebruary: Best
3. MMarch: Good
4. AApril: Poor or no data
5. MMay: Poor or no data
6. JJune: Poor or no data
7. JJuly: Poor or no data
8. AAugust: Poor or no data
9. SSeptember: Poor or no data
10. OOctober: Good
11. NNovember: Best
12. DDecember: Best

Similar species

Emperor Penguin

larger with paler ear patches; Antarctic sea ice

Range and habitat

Breeds on beaches of subantarctic islands, in Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen, and Heard islands, and Macquarie Island (southeast of Australia); disperses widely at sea mostly around Antarctic Convergence.

Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.