The Fairy [little] Penguin,
Just before dawn they leave their burrows in the sand to spend the
day at sea, swimming up to thirty kilometres in search of pilchards
and anchovies. They are shallow divers and most of their catch is
taken in the top ten metres of the sea, although some have been
recorded diving as deep as sixty metres.
Penguins are ideally shaped for
for swimming. They have torpedo-like bodies and small stiff wings
which they use like flippers to fly through the water, steering with
their legs and tail.
Penguins spend a lot of time
preening their feathers to keep them well oiled and waterproof. In
the late afternoon, Little Penguins gather at sea in groups (or
rafts) of up to 300, breaking into smaller groups as they near the
shore. They usually come ashore in the same place each night and
take the same path back to their burrows.
The Little Penguin lives in
colonies along the coasts and offshore islands of Australia and New
Zealand. At breeding time, two white eggs are laid in the burrow.
