The weights of fledging Macaroni penguin chicks at Bird Island have been monitored since 1989. The colony at Fairy Point, also known as Little Mac, contains approximately 400 breeding pairs. Each year, just before their departure from the colony, a sample of 100 fledgling birds are weighed as part of the Bird Island long-term monitoring programme. This data is submitted to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) as part of their Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (CEMP). This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to the British Antarctic Survey.

The breeding success (calculated from nest and chick counts) of Macaroni penguins is monitored annually at Bird Island, South Georgia. A transect is used to estimate the incubating nests and chicks hatched in the large colony at Goldcrest Point where counts have been made since 1976. The number of incubating nests and chicks reaching fledging stage in the whole of the smaller colony at Fairy Point are counted and data exist from 1982 onwards. This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to the British Antarctic Survey.

Macaroni penguins spend the winter at sea and return to colonies on land during the austral spring to reproduce. Arrival weights of male and female Macaroni penguins on Bird Island, South Georgia have been monitored since 1988. The current protocol is that 50 males are weighed on 28th October and 50 females on 8th November. This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (UK) core funding to the British Antarctic Survey.

The use of automated systems to record the identity of individual penguins and their movements in and out of a colony can provide an effective means of studying penguin biology remotely. In 2002 an automatic gateway was installed at the only access point to the Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) colony at Fairy Point, Bird Island. Taking advantage of the colony''s geography, which ensured that the birds have only one route between the colony and the sea, the gateway initially recorded bird identities from implanted radio frequency identification transponders (RFID tags). In 2009 a weighbridge was installed which records the weight of each bird and the direction of travel and from 2011 onwards the two systems, RFID antenna and weighbridge, were built into the same unit meaning it was now possible to confidently match the crossing data with bird identities.

Platform Transmitting Terminal (PTT) tags have been used to track Macaroni Penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) from Bird Island, South Georgia, since 1998. PTT tags use the ARGOS satellite system to collect geospatial data. These tags are deployed on a project-by-project basis and so data are not available for every year. Tags are generally deployed during the summer season, however, some winter data are available.

Platform Transmitting Terminal (PTT) tags have been used to track Macaroni Penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus), Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) and King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) from South Georgia since 2004. PTT tags use the ARGOS satellite system to collect geospatial data. These tags are deployed on a project-by-project basis and so data are not available for every year. Included in the dataset is data from females recorded during long, post-laying foraging periods as well as from fledged birds.

The diets of Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) and Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) have been monitored on Bird Island since 1989. This dataset comprises data on composition of diet samples (Crustaceans, Cephalopod and fish) and measurements of krill carapaces, fish otoliths and squid beaks found in the samples. These measurements are used to estimate the length and weight of krill, fish and squid that have been consumed.