Rock hopper penguins are very small reaching a height of 50 cm . They are easily recognizable by the bright yellow and orange feathers on their heads. They have blood red eyes , pink webbed feet and a red-orange beak.
They can be found bounding rather than waddling as most penguins do along the craggy windswept shore lands of the islands north of Antarctica from Chile to New Zealand.
During the annual breeding season they roost in noisy colonies of up to a thousand penguins. They construct burrows in the tall grasses along the shore. They return to the same breeding ground every year and will try to seek out the same mate.
Both parents take turns to incubate the eggs and will viciously peck anything ; big or small that gets too close.
Rock hoppers swim using their rudder like flippers to propel themselves through the water. Usually they swim in shallow water , however they are able to dive 330 ft in pursuit of fish , squid , crustaceans and krill.
These penguins are among the most numerous on the planet but their population is declining. Colonies on the Falkland islands were really large ; with commercial over fishing , pollution and other factors have cut the numbers down to 90%.
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