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One of the smallest penguins, Adélie Penguins weigh about 10 pounds and live mostly along pack ice in the Ross Sea of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica. They form great colonies and group feed—mainly on krill— to evade the hungry leopard seals that stalk the waters around the bird’s rookeries. Adélie Penguin breeding season kicks off when the Antarctic summer arrives in October. To attract females, males pick the finest stones to construct a nest along the rocky shore. Some sneakily steal good stones from neighboring nests to improve on the quality of their own. When parents leave their nests and young to hunt at sea, three to 20 chicks form independent clusters, called crèches, for protection.
This image was a Top 100 photo from the 2011 Audubon Magazine Photography Awards. To see all of the photos, click here.
For more on the Adélie Penguin:
Photo of the Day 2014: Adélie Penguins