Photo used with permission by Kieran Davies

Little Blue Penguins

Scientific name: Eudyptula minor

Total length: 16 inches

Weight: 2.4 pounds

Markings: dorsal fins are bluish-gray and the their bellies are white.

There is four subspecies of the blue penguins. The Northern blue penguin which lives on the southern and southwestern coasts of Australia as well as the coast of New Zealand. The Southern blue penguins live around the South Island of New Zealand and on several other small islands. The Chatham blue penguins are found on the Chatham Islands. The White-flippered blue penguins lives on the Banks Peninsula on the eastern coast of South island in New Zealand.

Little Blue penguins around new Zealand begin their mating season around April or May. Their nest will be self-dug sand burrow or the nest will under thick plant growth. Sometimes they can also be found in groups in natural hollows in the cliffs. They will have this nest all year around. Little Blue penguins are not travelers. During the day, they search for food in the sea then return to their brooding hollows at night and travel again to the sea at sunrise.

A single male will attract a female with an endearing mating call. These birds rarely fight with their neighbors but males living in a group perform a group mating call to attract the attention of single females. This leads to disagreements, sometimes.

Female little blue penguins lays two eggs in September or October. One parent remains on land to warm the egg. After about five weeks the little blue-gray chick is born. The next two or three weeks the parent have to keep the chick warm in tell the chick can maintain their own body heat.

Little blue penguins can live to be quite old. Once a bird has survived the first five years, it can live to be as much as fifteen to twenty years old. But only a one-third of the birds survive their first year. The dangers that the new inexperienced penguins on land risk: being attacked by dogs, cats, weasels, polecats, hit by trucks and automobiles. If that is not enough in the sea they have to worry about sea lions.

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