They are extremely faithful to their breeding sites, and can swim up to hundreds of kilometres to nest in the colonies where they were born and they tend to use the same burrows year after year.  Said burrows are under ground or in caves or crevices in the ground and various pairs can be found in the same cave.  They tend to lay and rear two eggs each breeding season.

They fish both day and night, although there are many that return to land at nightfall. It uses hunting strategies seen in other marine predators, such as swimming in concentric circles that gradually narrow around banks of fish until they launch themselves into the centre of the bank to feed. During the breeding season, these penguins are threatened by predators such as foxes, skunks and armadillos.  Storms also cause a descent in numbers due to collapse of the most fragile caves.