Fairy Penguins
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by Hayley Belbin  |
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Fairy penguins live in Australia and New Zealand. They have other names: Little Penguin, Little Blue penguin and the scientific name is Eudyptula Minor. That means "good little diver". |
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Their wings are flippers. They can’t fly. They go for smaller schools of fish. They eat crustaceans like most other penguins. They all so get squid and krill. Under water they go 35 to 40 kilometres per hour. They have webbed feet that help them swim. Their eyes are designed for underwater. |
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They come ashore only at night time to walk to their burrows. Early in the morning when it is still dark they go to the sea again. |
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They always live near the sea. Fairy Penguins breed in colonies. The nest is at the end of the burrows. It can be in a cave, under a rock, under a bush even under a house. They can live up to twenty years. |
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 Breeding
The male penguin sings to the female then they both start to sing. They make a nest out of dry grass and leaves. Between June and August there is mostly two eggs in a burrow. The hatching takes 1 to 2 days. There are one or two pairs to around 15, 000 pairs. |
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Chicks
At the end of five weeks the eggs is ready for the chick to hatch. It scrapes against the shell until the shell brakes. It goes under its mum and keeps itself warm. Both the mother and father penguin care for the chick. The other one goes to sea and gets some food. The chick grows bigger and bigger and stronger. At dusk the chick comes out of the nest to wait to see its parents to feed it. |
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When its feather grow it moves out of the nest and goes for a walk. At eight weeks old it goes in to the water. Its parents don’t show it how to swim it dives, it gets fish and goes to the other penguins. It goes to shore. They parents penguins usually can’t bring back enough food for the two babies. Chicks don’t breed until they are three to four years old. |
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