Penguin plumage is often called “winged-tux”, mainly because they resemble the formal black-and-white tux that men wear at dinner get-togethers, and also because they are winged creatures. The signature black plumage and white belly is endearing and eternally familiar.
King penguins and emperor penguins are the two species that we will differentiate in this article. They look alike, hands down. Even the orange coloration on their collars look similar. However, only when you compare king penguin vs emperor penguin, closely, does the show finally begin.
So wear your tux and start the stylish waddle to the dinner party. And do not forget to toboggan, because you may reach faster that way. Let’s start!
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A Sneak Peek Into The Life Of Penguins
Penguins are flightless birds that can waddle about and swim to go from one place to another. They belong to the order Sphenisciformes, and family Spheniscidae. Penguins are endemic to the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere. There is just one penguin species that can be found in the north called the Galapagos penguins.
The beaches and valleys near oceans and coastal areas are frequented by these birds. All penguins look similar with long flapping wings on their two sides, and webbed feet, walking about with a human-like gait. They usually have a snow-white belly and a shiny black back. Some penguins like King penguins have colors like red or yellow on their plumage.
King Penguin vs Emperor Penguin: Difference Chart
Let’s quickly take a look at the differences between these two majestic birds.
| Features | King Penguin | Emperor Penguin |
| Body Size | Smaller, shorter, lighter | Larger, taller, heavier |
| Plumage Color | Dull orange ear-patch | Bright orange ear-patch |
| Beak | 12-14 cm long, straighter | 8 cm long, more curved |
| Special Adaptations | Short and stout wings, webbed feet, dense feathers | Thick fat layer, solid bones |
| Hunting Techniques | Agile swimming close to water surface | Deep sea diving |
Similarities Between King Penguin And Emperor Penguin
King and emperor penguins look strikingly similar from afar– black crowns, sleek and shiny black backs, and a white belly. They both waddle about on snow, sliding past on their belly and feeding on fish, krill and squids. Both these avians can dive thousands of feet into the water to catch prey and have mind blowing adaptations to survive in the harsh conditions of winters.
The beaks of both the penguins are narrow and curved that assist them to catch prey and ward off predators. Webbed feet is a characteristic that is common between both these flightless birds. During the breeding season, monogamous parents take care of just one single egg and parenting skills of both the families are top notch. So how do you differentiate between them?
Differences Between Emperor Penguin vs King Penguin
For one thing, the species of the two penguins in question is different, though they both belong to the same genera. King penguins are scientifically called ‘Aptenodytes patagonicus’, whereas
Emperor penguins have a different species name called ‘forsteri’. What other differences do they share? Keep reading to find out!
Body size
Emperor penguins are known as the largest penguins in the world with a height measuring 1.2 meters which is equivalent to 4 feet– almost the height of an average human being. Not only are they the tallest, but also the heaviest of all living penguin species, weighing between 80 and 100 pounds or 40 to 45 kg. They are called emperors for a reason– they rule!
On the other hand, king penguins, who are no lesser in any way, stand tall at a height of 1.1 meters, which is slightly lower than the height of emperor penguins. They weigh about 35 pounds or 15 kg, with the males being slightly larger than the females. It is basically this height difference between the two penguins that can help you to tell them apart.
Plumage Color
Both the penguins have yellow-orange ear patches, but subtle differences do exist that set them apart. In emperor penguins, the dull orange ear patch turns yellow as it extends down the chest region. The back is sleek black in color, and their belly a characteristic snowy white.
However, in the case of king penguins, the orange ear-patch is not just orange, but a bright orange shade, much more captivating than the ear-patch of emperor penguins. The ear-patch of king penguins turn yellow too as it stretches toad the chest, but the yellow is still brighter than their counterpart. Back and crowns are silvery black, and bellies white.
In the emperor penguin family, the males are slightly bigger than females. In the king penguin family, the females are slightly brighter in plumage-makeup than their male counterparts.
Beak
Believe it or not, though emperor penguins are larger than king penguins, their beaks are smaller than those of king penguins. The bills of emperor penguins are 8 cm long, whereas the beaks of king penguins are around 4 to 5 cm longer.
However, the beaks of emperor penguins are more curved than those of king penguins. They are curved till the very end. On the other hand, king penguins have a straighter looking beak where the curvature is almost non-existent, except at the tip.
The color of the lower mandibles differ too. The lower mandible of emperor penguin beaks could be either orange, yellow, pink or lilac. However, the beaks of king penguins have a bright orange stripe on them. This orange may look slightly yellowish at times. Also the stripes on the lower mandibles are thicker in the case of the king penguins.
Special Adaptations And Hunting Tactics
Both emperor and king penguins have to survive extremely low temperatures, especially during the winter months, in the antarctic regions. In order to withstand the harsh conditions, they need to have special adaptations that will be discussed in this segment.
Emperor Penguins: Emperor penguins have a 3 cm thick blubber underneath their skin that helps them to fight back icy-cold wintry months by insulating their body, thus retaining body heat. Not only this, but overlapping layers of thick contour, down and dorsal feathers help them to battle with -40 degrees of temperatures. They also huddle in colonies to share body heat.
Emperor penguins hunt by deep sea diving. They can reach depths as high as 1600 to 1900 feet into the freezing cold waters of the Antarctic to catch prey that include krill, silverfish, squids, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Their streamlined body and their ability to hold breaths for as long as 22 minutes under water, help them to hunt this way.
Not only under water, but emperor penguins walk long distances across ice-covered floes to find suitable feeding and breeding spots. They are usually seen hunting and nesting in groups. In order to survive the unfriendly glacial conditions, they have uniquely structured hemoglobin in their blood that helps them endure suffocating conditions underwater or on the ground.
King Penguins: Instead of deep sea diving, king penguins make short-distance dives ranging between 300 and 1000 feet into the icy waters, coming back to the water surface within a short period of time. They have adopted the ‘aquatic-pursuit’ hunting strategy where they swim at a speed of 6.5 to 10 km/hr, looking for lanternfish, squid and krill.
King penguins are myctophids, meaning their dietary preferences include fish mainly. They have webbed feet that help them to swim at phenomenal speeds. Like emperor penguins, king penguins walk long distances to look for food and an amicable atmosphere for laying eggs. Their whole body is covered with short, densely packed feathers to provide effective insulation.
King penguins flaunt shorter and stouter wings. This is because broader wing surface-area will allow higher air resistance and thus slow them down that they cannot afford. Agility is their main tool for hunting and they cannot exchange that for the world.
Breeding Season
King and emperor penguins are devoted parents. Other birds in the avian world may shy away after witnessing the profound care that even male penguins dedicate to their newly hatched chicks. Let’s dive deeper to steal a glimpse at the traditional family affairs.
Emperor Penguins: Antarctic regions barely get any sunlight, so freezing temperatures are a norm at these places all throughout the year. Emperor penguins breed during March and April, or late autumn in the antarctic. Emperor penguin females lay only one egg per breeding season. The eggs are tear-drop shaped, white, and quite large, ranging between 11 to 13 cm in length.
The female, after laying the egg, leaves the family for 2 months, searching for food for the family. Until she returns, the responsibility of caring for the egg and incubating it falls solely on the shoulder of the father penguin. For 65 days, the male emperor penguin will shelter the egg in between his legs where there is a flap of skin called the brood pouch.
During incubation, the male does not leave the eggs even for once, and he even goes without eating or drinking anything. Thus during the breeding season, males lose about 12 kg of weight. However, before the females come back, the eggs have hatched and both the parents later take care of the chick together.
Emperor penguins trek for 100 to 120 km at a stretch searching for ice-floes where they mate and produce chicks together. Large colonies of more than 10000 birds form nesting pairs. During the breeding season, males compete to attract female attention and they become quite protective of their females. In emperor penguin colonies, male hierarchy is prevalent.
King Penguins: Unlike emperor penguins, king penguins breed during October and December, when it is extremely cold in the antarctic areas. Their breeding colonies are much larger than emperor penguins, consisting of 100,000 pairs to 455,000 pairs of mating partners. However, though larger, the male dominance and competition is subdued in king penguin communities.
They are necessarily friendly with each other within these colonies– they just stay together because they serve similar interests. The breeding cycle of king penguins ranges between 13 to 16 months, usually between April and November. Unlike emperor penguins, king penguins move short distances only and do not demonstrate long-distance migration tendencies.
In contrast to the parenting techniques of emperor penguins, in king penguin families, incubation is done by both the parents. Incubation time continues for 54 days, a few days shorter than the incubation period of emperor penguins.
Chicks
Chicks of penguins are as adorable as baby kittens. They may be born to an emperor or a king, but their size remains tiny as always– as mother nature requires all young ones to be. Usually penguin chicks are 3 to 4 inches long right after hatching.
However, the chicks born to emperor penguins look completely different from the chicks of king penguins as far as the color of their coat is concerned. Emperor penguin chicks are ashy white in appearance with grayish-black patches on their face.
On the other hand, king penguin chicks are light brown to look at, and have no black or white patches anywhere on their body. As they grow older, however, they start to molt and look a lot like their cousin brothers and sisters.
Chicks remain in close-knit colonies while their parents remain away for a long time looking for food for them. Their parents feed them all throughout winter when food scarcity persists. However, the chicks are robust and can fast for long periods of time.
Distribution And Habitat
Is there any difference between where the two penguins can be found? Well, they both live in the icy-cold conditions of the Antarctic, but emperor penguins live on the continent of Antarctica, especially along the coastline of the region. They seek for ice-floes to breed in. The icy whiteness, the harsh winter storms, are a source of utter delight for these creatures.
On the other hand, king penguins live on the sub-antarctic islands of the region, avoiding ice and snow as much as possible. In other words, they are found in the slightly warmer parts of the Antarctic region. They can be spotted huddling and waddling on the beaches, valleys and moraines of the Falkland Islands, South Sandwich Island, and such places.
King Penguin vs Emperor Penguin: Interesting Facts
Curiosity around penguins never ceases to exist. To quench your thirst for knowledge, we have presented below some interesting snippets about these two magnificent avians.
- Both the penguins have bizarre sleeping habits. They are neither diurnal or nocturnal– they are cathemeral, meaning they can choose to be active or asleep anytime during the day or night. They just huddle and fall asleep on their belly. This is mainly because they experience polar nights and midnight sun phenomena, being in the Antarctic region.
- The male penguins incubate eggs in brood pouches.
- Emperor penguins make deep dives, the reason why their bones are solid and not air-filled like other birds. This adaptation is to prevent barotrauma– trauma that can affect bones adversely due to change in pressure once they go deeper into the waters.
- Emperor penguins can slow down metabolism and shut down non-essential body organs during harsh winter conditions to save energy and body heat– akin to hibernation.
Thoughts
Black and white are the major plumage colors when it comes to penguins. Their crowns and backs are sleek and shiny black, with snow-white bellies. They mostly feed on fish and other invertebrates. Snow and ice seem to be their friends, and their naive-looking waddle warms your heart. King and emperor penguins both have all the above characteristics.
Differentiating king penguin vs emperor penguin is a tricky affair. They both look so strikingly similar, telling them apart is tough especially from afar. However, the two birds are different species so they are expected to share differences between them. A closer look at their physical nuances and their behavior may provide us with insights we are looking for.
