Image: Little Penguin Illustration
Description
Little Penguins are black and white diving birds that live in small colonies in the seas of southern Australia. They have black beaks with a hook on the end and sharp cutting edges and webbed feet with long toenails. They call with a yapping sound.
- Illustrator:
- Andrew Howells
- Rights:
- © Australian Museum
- Common name:
- Little Penguin
- Scientific name:
- Eudyptula minor
Additional information
Little Penguins are black and white diving birds that live in small colonies in the seas of southern Australia. They have black beaks with a hook on the end and sharp cutting edges and webbed feet with long toenails. They call with a yapping sound.
Little Penguins search under water for crustaceans, fish and squid during the day. They grasp their prey with the hook and sharp cutting edges of their beak and go to the surface of the water to swallow it whole.
Little Penguins dig a burrow under a rock or grass tussock and line it with grass and leaves to make their nest. Females lay one to three white, oval eggs. Both parents take it in turns to sit on the eggs to keep them warm for 36 days. When the eggs hatch the chicks are helpless and covered in soft down.
Both parents feed and care for the chicks until they are eight weeks old, when they are ready to 'fly' underwater and feed themselves.
Little Penguins are the smallest penguins in the world and are the only penguin to breed in mainland Australia. They come ashore at night and leave again to feed in the ocean before the sun rises the next day.
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