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“Emperor penguins are the only birds that breed during the Antarctic winter.”
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest living penguin. This Antarctic carnivore breeds on polar sea ice, hunts fish, krill, and squid, and huddles through winter storms while incubating a single egg.
Aptenodytes forsteriSphenisciformesSpheniscidae
Explore emperor penguin photos of polar habitat, chicks, colonies, and Southern Ocean life.
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Core article
A closer look at habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and conservation.
The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins — a black-and-white Antarctic specialist built for deep dives, winter breeding, and life on shifting sea ice. Unlike temperate penguin species that nest on rocky shores, emperors raise chicks on fast ice far from open water, enduring some of the coldest breeding conditions any bird faces.
Emperor penguins belong to kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, class Aves, and order Sphenisciformes. Within the penguin family Spheniscidae they share the genus Aptenodytes with the king penguin (A. patagonicus). The species name forsteri honors naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster.
Penguins traded flight for underwater power tens of millions of years ago. Emperors pushed that marine specialization to an extreme: denser bone for diving ballast, stiff flippers for propulsion, and a life history timed to polar winter. They sit near the top of Antarctic food webs as mid-level predators that also feed scavengers such as giant petrels after colony mortality events.
Adults typically stand about 3.5 to 4.3 feet (110 to 130 cm) tall and weigh roughly 50 to 100 pounds (22 to 45 kg). Males and females look alike: a black head and back, white front, pale yellow breast wash, and orange-yellow ear patches. Dense, overlapping feathers — oiled by the uropygial gland — form a waterproof shell over a thick blubber layer that stores energy for long winter fasts.
Wings are rigid flippers powered by large pectoral muscles. Feet are short and sturdy for walking and tobogganing on ice; the brood pouch of skin and feathers covers a single egg balanced on the feet. Salt glands above the eyes excrete excess salt ingested with seawater and prey. Countershaded plumage helps hide swimming birds from predators and fish alike.
Emperor penguins live only in Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean. Their habitat is polar sea ice: stable fast ice for colonies, pack ice edges for foraging routes, and cold marine water rich in fish and krill. Unlike Arctic specialists such as the polar bear, emperors never occur in the Northern Hemisphere.
Colonies form at predictable coastal sites, but ice conditions shift year to year. When fast ice breaks up too early, chicks that have not finished molting can drown or starve. Adult foraging ranges stretch far from the colony into productive Southern Ocean waters also used by predators such as orcas and by surface hunters including the wandering albatross.
Emperors are strict marine carnivores. Their diet centers on fish (often Antarctic silverfish), krill, and squid. Adults commute between the colony and open water, sometimes walking or tobogganing long distances across ice before plunging into the sea.
Underwater they are endurance divers. Recorded depths exceed 1,500 feet (about 500 m), and breath-holds can last more than 20 minutes. Sharp bills and backward-facing mouth spines help grip slippery prey. After foraging trips, parents regurgitate semi-digested seafood to chicks waiting on the ice. Leopard seals and orcas hunt swimming penguins near ice edges; airborne scavengers threaten eggs and small chicks in the colony.
Emperor penguins are highly social during breeding. Thousands of birds may gather at a single colony, using calls and displays to relocate mates and chicks in dense crowds. The signature winter behavior is huddling: packed groups share body heat and continually rotate, so birds on the windward rim eventually reach the warmer interior.
Outside the breeding season, adults disperse across pack ice and open water to feed and molt. Mutual recognition of partners and offspring depends heavily on vocal signatures amid colony noise. Compared with solitary polar hunters, emperor survival is a group strategy — especially for incubating males that must last weeks of darkness, wind, and freezing temperatures without feeding.
Breeding begins in the austral autumn as adults walk inland onto stable ice. After courtship, the female lays a single egg, transfers it carefully to the male, and returns to sea to feed. The male incubates for roughly two months, balancing the egg on his feet beneath the brood pouch and surviving almost entirely on stored fat.
When the chick hatches, the female usually returns with a full stomach, and parents share feeding duties. Chicks gather in crèches as they grow, insulated by down until they molt into waterproof feathers and walk toward the sea. Sexual maturity arrives after several years. Wild birds commonly live around 15 to 20 years if they survive the hazardous first seasons of ice and open water.
(Population and conservation trend data sourced from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species)
The emperor penguin is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List (uplisted from Near Threatened in 2026). Climate-driven loss and instability of sea ice are the central threats: early ice breakup collapses breeding platforms before chicks can fledge, and longer-term projections show steep population declines this century without major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Additional pressures include local disturbance, fisheries competition for prey, and the cascading effects of Southern Ocean warming on krill and fish stocks. Because the species depends on ice conditions across many colonies, conservation hinges on global climate policy plus Antarctic Treaty protections that limit harmful activity near breeding areas. Large filter-feeding neighbors such as the blue whale share the same changing Southern Ocean system, underscoring that emperor penguin recovery is tied to polar ecosystem health, not only single-colony management.
Emperor penguins are the only birds that breed during the Antarctic winter.
Males can fast for more than two months while incubating the egg.
They can dive deeper than 1,500 feet and hold their breath for over 20 minutes.
Huddles of thousands of birds shuffle so outer birds get turns in the warm center.
Unlike most penguins, emperors do not build nests of rocks or burrows.
Chicks wear grayish down before molting into waterproof juvenile plumage.
Select a question to reveal the answer.
The emperor penguin (*Aptenodytes forsteri*) is the tallest and heaviest living penguin. It is a flightless seabird in the family Spheniscidae that lives only around Antarctica.
They live exclusively in Antarctica and nearby pack ice. Breeding colonies form on stable sea ice along the Antarctic coast; the species never nests in the Arctic.
Emperor penguins are carnivores. They hunt fish (including Antarctic silverfish), krill, and squid during long underwater dives in the Southern Ocean.
Adults usually stand about 3.5 to 4.3 feet (roughly 110 to 130 cm) tall and weigh about 50 to 100 pounds (22 to 45 kg), with males often heavier before the long winter fast.
Emperors breed on Antarctic sea ice in winter and are larger. King penguins (*Aptenodytes patagonicus*) are smaller, nest on subantarctic islands, and keep bright orange ear patches that look different up close.
Yes. The IUCN Red List moved the emperor penguin from Near Threatened to Endangered in 2026 because of projected declines driven by climate-linked sea-ice loss.
They rely on dense feathers, a thick fat layer, and cooperative huddling. Birds circulate from the cold rim of the huddle into the warmer center during polar storms.
A baby emperor penguin is called a chick. Each pair usually raises one chick, which is fed regurgitated food by both parents after the female returns from foraging.
No rock or burrow nest is used. The single egg sits on a parent's feet and is covered by a warm brood pouch of feathered skin until it hatches.
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