Little Blue Penguin Facts

Scientific Classification

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Aves

ORDER: Sphenesciformes

FAMILY: Spheniscidae

GENUS: Eudyptula

SPECIES: E. minor

Conservation Status

Little Penguins in Featherdale Wildlife Park in Australia

Penguins at St. Kilda , Victoria , Australia

little Blue Penguins in australia sydney zoo

Australian Little Penguin picking at sea weed

Standing only 1 foot tall on average and weighing around 3 to 6 pounds puts them at the smallest end of the penguin spectrum. Compare that to the emperor penguin we are all familiar with which stands 3 feet tall and weighs around 70 pounds!

As their namesake suggests, they have blue coloration on their backside with a white ventral surface. This type of coloration is called countershading so predators from below have a harder time spotting them against the bright sky underwater, and they also are harder to spot from above against the deep blue of the ocean.

Little penguins inhabit the coastal waters around their native range of Australia and New Zealand. They will come to shore to nest and molt their feathers.

Little penguins, like all penguins, are carnivores and subsist on a diet of small fish, shrimp, and a tiny crustacean made famous by Hollywood : krill.

These tiny shrimp roam the oceans in huge numbers and are the same food many whale species, like the blue whale, feed on.

Breeding season varies across the different areas little penguins live. Eastern Australian populations lay their eggs from July through December. In South Australia’s breeding season, eggs are laid between April and October.

After mating, the female lays either one or two and sometimes three white or brown spotted eggs roughly the size of a large goose egg.

The eggs will incubate for about 1 month and hatch. Newly hatched chicks are barely larger than a baby chicken and hidden safely in burrows the parents have built deep underground, within caves, or rock crevices. Both parents will go to sea and return at dusk to feed the chicks.

In about 2 months, the chicks will fledge. Male penguins reach breeding age around 3 while females are a little less at 2 years of age.