#eudyptula

Oh yes, absolutely!!!

Fairy or Blue or Little Penguin (Eudyptula spp.), family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes, found in coastal areas of New Zealand and southern Australia

This is the smallest penguin.

They nest in burrows at or near the coast.

This species has been split into 2 species, E. minor and E. novaehollandiae was split off in 2016.

Fairy Penguins (Eudyptula minor) swimming in Sydney Harbor

Little penguin (Eudyptula minor)

By J. J. Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Etymology: Good Diver

First Described By: Bonaparte, 1856

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Aequorlitornithes, Ardeae, Aequornithes, Austrodyptornithes, Sphenisciformes, Spheniscidae

Status: Extant, Least Concern

Time and Place: From 12,000 years ago until today, in the Holocene of the Quaternary 

Little Penguins are known from the coast of Australia and New Zealand

Physical Description: Little Penguins are some of the most adorable penguins alive today, and the reason is clear: they’re smol! Little Penguins range in size between 40 and 45 centimeters in length, and none weigh more than 2.1 kilograms. They are a blue-grey on their backs and white on their bellies and necks. They have very small flippers, which can be entirely blue or blue only in the center with white banding around it. They have short little tails and small feet, which are formed into lightly orange flippers. Their beaks are short and round, and either light in color or dark depending on the population. The juveniles tend to be a somewhat duller color than the adults, but usually very similar overall. 

By Magnus Kjaergaard, CC BY 3.0 

Diet: Little Penguins feed mainly on fish that form schools in the pelagic zone of the ocean (rather than closer to the coast). They’ll also feed on cephalopods and crustaceans. 

By Francesco Veronesi, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Behavior: These nocturnal penguins will capture their food via pursuit-diving, mainly swimming around schools of fish in tighter and tighter circles until finally - woosh! - they dive into the middle and grab as much food as they can. In shallower water, they do pursue the fish more directly. They can dive as deep as 50 meters underwater, sometimes more - including 69 meters deep. They go up to 62 kilometers away from the nesting and sleeping colony sites, though they can usually only go a fraction of that in a single day and longer distances are reserved for multiple day trips. Females tend to forage more than the males. They feed alone, though they do forage in groups. They are extremely noisy in their colonies, making a variety of trills, brays, growls, grunts, yelping, trumpeting, and wailing sounds to one another. They do not migrate, but do stay near the breeding colony extensively during the moulting and nesting season. Juveniles will leave the colony for a large amount of time, but do eventually return to breed where they were born. 

By Phillip Island Tourism, CC BY-SA 4.0 

Little Penguins begin breeding in July and continue through December, though it varies from colony to colony and from year to year. They tend to stick to one nest site for their whole lives and are also fairly monogamous, though they do divorce from their partners around 76% of the time. If they are unsuccessful in raising any chicks one year, the next year they are more likely to divorce than not. The nests are made in a little bit far apart from one another in the colonie, usually a burrow in the sand lined with plant material. Usually two eggs are laid in the nest and are incubated for a little more than one month by both parents. The chicks hatch extremely fluffy and greyish-brown; they then molt to look dark brown and grey another month later. At this time young birds will form creches together for two more months, hanging out and learning from each other. They then fledge and become juveniles two more months later. They become sexually mature at two to four years of age, and can live for up to 20 years (though shorter is more common). The chicks and nesting colonies tend to feed at dusk. 

By Mark Nairn, CC BY 3.0 

Ecosystem: Little Penguins live mainly in sandy and rocky coasts, usually near the bases of cliffs and in sand dunes. They will spend most of their time in temperate to sub-arctic marine waters, many miles offshore. They are preyed upon by cats, dogs, rats, foxes, lizards, snakes, ferrets, stoats, seals, and some other ocean predators. They are mostly affected by introduced mammalian predators at this time. 

By fir0002, GFDL 1.2 

Other: While Little Penguins are, overall, doing alright and are even common in terms of population  management; however, a number of human-created threats are affecting certain colonies and bringing many of them to the verge of collapse. Uncontrolled hunting by domesticated dogs and cats are major causes of colony destruction, as are oil spills, fishing interactions (including being caught in nets), human interference and development, as well as cullings by humans attempting to manage populations of other birds. As such, Little Penguins are of major interest for ecological groups in order to preserve their populations in light of these threats. Fossils of this species are known from its current range from the recent ice age.

~ By Meig Dickson

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