Although some penguins seems to favor crabs, the king penguin eats small fish and squid. The king penguin hunts in groups. They have strong beaks and a special tongue with rough spines to hold fish. They have a sort of pouch between their stomach and mouth. When the birds have chicks to feed, they carry fish and other food in side their pouch.
Food is found at ten to twenty meters below the water surface in the summer.
They are excellent divers to retrieve their food. In the winter, their only food is found deep beneath the ocean surface, and the king penguin must dive from five minutes to an hour in order to find food. They eat only every fourteen days, so they loose half their weight in between feedings. They drink salt and fresh water and eat snow. Penguins protect themselves by living in large colonies.