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Northern Rockhopper Penguin | Eudyptes moseleyi
Noordelijke rotspinguïn | Pingüino Saltarrocas Septentrional
The Northern Rockhopper Penguin is the crested penguin with the longest and most luxuriant yellow plumes of its genus. It breeds on Tristan da Cunha, Gough and the islands of Amsterdam and Saint-Paul, and is the crested penguin most often found ashore on South African beaches.
Voice
In the colony a loud, harsh, trumpeting bray given with the head raised, ekk-ekk-ekk-aaah, heavier and deeper than that of Eastern Rockhopper. Also barking contact calls and growls. Birds ashore in the region are usually silent.
Recording: Chris Taylor — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 55 to 62 cm, slate black on the head and upperparts and white below. A broad yellow eyebrow starts above the lores and extends behind the eye into long, dense, untidily drooping plumes of yellow and black that can reach the shoulders; the black crown feathers also form a shaggy crest. The bill is short and orange-red, the eye red and the feet pink. On the underwing the black leading edge is broad and the dark tip large. Juveniles have a grey chin, a short, faint yellow stripe and a darker bill.
Confusion species
The Eastern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes filholi) has shorter, sparser plumes, a narrower eyebrow and a pink skin edge at the bill base. The Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) is larger, with a heavier bill and orange-yellow plumes that meet on the forehead. Juveniles of these species can be confused: use the width of the dark underwing margin and the size of the bill.
Habitat
It breeds in colonies among boulders and in dense tussock grass on steep coastal slopes, often beside streams running down to the sea. It forages in subtropical and cool temperate waters around the Subtropical Front, on crustaceans, squid and small fish. In the region moulting or weakened birds come ashore on sandy beaches and rocky shores.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region a vagrant, mainly along the coast of the Western and Eastern Cape, with a few records from KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia; most birds come ashore from December to April, often while moulting. The breeding grounds lie in the South Atlantic on Tristan da Cunha (including Inaccessible and Nightingale) and Gough, and in the southern Indian Ocean on Amsterdam and Saint-Paul.
How and when to look
In summer and early autumn search the beaches and rocky shores from the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape, especially after strong westerly winds. Beached penguins are often exhausted: keep your distance and report them to a seabird rehabilitation centre, where the identification can also be confirmed.
Conservation status
Endangered. The world population fell very sharply during the twentieth century, above all on Gough and Amsterdam. Likely causes are changes in food supply at sea through warming, fisheries and, in the past, egg collecting. Shipping accidents are a direct risk: in the MS Oliva oil spill at Nightingale in 2011 thousands of birds were oiled.
Scientific name
Eudyptes moseleyi | Mathews & Iredale, 1921
Mathews & Iredale described the species in 1921 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Eudyptes was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. Eudyptes comes from the Greek eu, 'good', and duptēs, 'diver' — 'good diver', for the agility with which these crested penguins hunt underwater. moseleyi honours the English naturalist Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844–1891), who sailed as naturalist on the Challenger expedition and visited Tristan da Cunha. The specimen the first description was based on came from Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha.