Behaviour This species is a biennial breeder usually nesting solitarily or in small colonies. Most eggs are laid in October-November, hatch in December-January and chicks fledge in May-June (Croxall and Gales 1998). Egg laying is highly synchronous within each colony. Young birds are philopatric, returning to their natal colonies after 7 to 12 years (ACAP 2009). Breeding birds from Macquarie Island typically forage in shelf waters around the island; they also utilise sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters south-west of Macquarie (BirdLife International 2004). During chick-rearing, adults from South Georgia feed in Antarctic shelf and shelf-slope areas along the southern Scotia Arc and to a lesser extent in oceanic waters in the mid Scotia Sea (Phillips et al. 2005). It employs a variety of feeding strategies, including surface-seizing, surface filtering and plunging.
Habitat Breeding It nests on cliff ledges, on a pedestal nest of mud and peat, lined with grass.
Diet The diet is primarily composed of cephalopods and euphausiids, but birds also take fish and carrion (Thomas 1982, Cooper and Klages 1995).
Foraging range Satellite-tracked incubating birds from Macquarie Island foraged south of the Antarctic Polar Front, an average of 1,500 km from their breeding sites. Four breeding birds from South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur) followed a typical flight path (38 trips) involving a clockwise route to and from high latitude waters along the southern Scotia Arc, on average travelling 3,800 km, to a maximum range of 920 km from the colony (for further information see Weimerskirch and Robertson 1994, Phillips et al. 2005, Terauds and Gales 2006, Lawton et al. 2008, Mackley et al. 2010).

Phoebetria palpebrata has a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean. It disperses over cold Antarctic waters in summer as far south as the pack ice (Weimerskirch and Robertson 1994, Phillips et al. 2005, Terauds and Gales 2006, Lawton et al. 2008, Mackley et al. 2010) but ranges north into temperate and sub-tropical seas in winter. It breeds on South Georgia (Georgias del Sur), Auckland, Campbell and Antipodes islands (New Zealand), Amsterdam, St Paul, Crozet and Kerguelen islands (French Southern Territories), Heard Island (Heard and MacDonald Islands (to Australia)), Macquarie Island (Australia), and Prince Edward and Marion islands (South Africa).

Conservation Actions Underway
CMS Appendix II and ACAP Annex 1.

Conservation Actions Proposed
Conduct standardised population surveys at all key sites. Determine foraging distribution and overlap with fisheries. As a precaution, eradicate introduced predators at breeding sites.