Little Blue Fairy Penguins

"Eudyptula" is Greek for "good little diver"

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Living among the fairy penguins

In the late 70's and early 80's my parents owned a house in Summerlands on Phillip Island which sits at the top of the cliff above the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. During part of the summer and regularly throughout the year this was our home when our family wanted to get away from the city and enjoy the beach.

During this time I came to know the fairy penguins well. While they may not be called fairy penguins any more, I can't think of them as little penguins, the name just doesn't suit, even though it is the correct name.

In the evenings we would watch the tour buses drive around the coast bringing tourists from around the world to see Australia's second largest natural tourist attraction. We watched the Penguin Parade grow every year, with new improvements made to the preserve, and eventually the houses in the area were sold and torn down to provide a safer environment for the penguins.

The penguin parade is on a beach at the bottom of a large steep, grassy and rocky cliff. Many of the penguins live in the sand dunes around the beach, however a substantial number live above the cliffs where the housing development was. Why any penguin would make their burrows high up above the cliffs is beyond me. It just seems like a lot of extra work and no extra benefit.

The penguins would spend hours climbing the cliffs to get to their nests. Long after the tourist buses were gone, we would begin to see the penguins arrive at the top of the cliffs and wander around the streets and homes looking for their burrows. The noise they made continued throughout the night until dawn when many would return to the ocean.

Even though we saw them night after night, we never stopped enjoying walking around the streets, or just sitting on our balcony watching them wander past.

For many years we had a burrow under our water tank. During the breeding season we would peer in to see if any eggs had been laid, being careful to avoid any angry penguin parent or snake looking for a snack of penguin eggs. It was best to stand back away and not get too close. We didn't want to disturb the nest, or be attacked.

The tiny penguin chicks were adorable, but obviously hard to see as they stayed in their nest and we never saw them out of the burrow.

Once a penguin decided to make its home in one of our kayaks. We didn't realize this until we got ready to leave after a weekend on the island and found the bird inside. It took a long time to get it out. We didn't dare grab it, and how it managed to stay in there, a very slippery surface as we turned the kayak on its end still amazes me. I can only assume it was a male making a new burrow.

It was always sad to see a dead penguin on the road but unfortunately this happened from time to time. People would often drive around the area at night looking for the penguins after the Penguin Parade had finished. Most drove slowly and with care, and if not, the residents would remind people to slow down and to not stick their hands in the burrows. Some tourists weren't too deterred when we told them of the penguin's sharp beaks, which are thin and hooked like a fishing hook, so we also added how much snakes enjoyed penguin eggs. That got people moving back fast!

The Penguin Parade on Phillip Island is Australia's second largest natural tourist attractions. Every night hundreds and hundred of these little penguins arrive on shore around Phillip Island, but especially at the Penguin Parade which is designed for tourists to view this phenomenon in a way that is both safe for the penguins and fun for the tourists.

COMMON NAME: little penguin, little blue penguin, fairy penguin

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Aves

ORDER: Sphenisciformes

FAMILY: Spheniscidae

GENUS SPECIES: Eudyptula minor

Penguins are amazing birds. They are flightless, and spend much of their time in the water as they are spectacular swimmers. Little penguins will swim up to 20 kilometers a day catching fish and they have been recorded diving up to 65 meters. The penguins do not return to land every day, they can sleep in the water for 4 minutes at a time, floating on the surface, and will spend weeks at a time in the ocean.

The body of the little penguin is kept dry due to "waterproofing" of its feathers. It does this by secreting an oily substance from the base of its tail which is rubbed over its feathers.

Seals and sharks prey on little penguins at sea, and on land foxes, humans, dogs and cats are all predators of the little penguin.

The little penguin is also known as the Blue Penguin due to its feathers being a dark blue and not black like other penguins. Underneath the feathers are white. This colouring camoflages the bird from above, where it blends in with the water, and from below, where it blends in with the sky.

All species of penguin are found in the southern hemisphere. Little penguins are specifically found along the coast of Australia and New Zealand. Human habitation has greatly reduced the penguin colonies which is why conservation is so important. The penguins spend weeks at sea but returns to land to nest and to moult.

Little penguins are unlike other species of penguins in that they only come to land at nightfall. They return in groups which helps protect them against predators, and return to their own burrows.

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Little penguins live on average 6.5 years, however some have been known to live for as long as 20. Adult penguins, at around age 2-3, begin laying two eggs in winter or spring. After approximately 5 weeks with both parents incubating for periods of around 10 days, the eggs hatch.

Chicks gain independence from their parents after their adult feathers have come in, which happens sometime during its second month of life.

Male penguins build burrows, which then attract the female. When a female has chosen her burrow, she will mate with the male for the year.

All adults will moult at the end of summer. During this time you can see feathers scattered around the edges of the burrows where the penguins stay for a few weeks until the adult feathers are completely replaced. The penguins cannot return to the sea during this time as their feathers are not waterproof. During the two week moulting season little penguins are particularly vulnerable to predators.