Penguins are birds instantly recognizable by their black-and-white coloring that resembles a tuxedo. These unique animals are amazing swimmers and divers, perfectly built for life in the ocean, even though they cannot fly. Found primarily in cold climates, these flightless birds have many adaptations for how they survive, move, and raise their families.
The Tuxedo Travelers: Appearance and Movement
Penguins are birds that cannot fly, but their wings have changed over millions of years into powerful, stiff flippers. These flippers are perfect for pushing through the water, making them look like they are flying underwater when they swim. The fastest species, the Gentoo penguin, can zoom through the water at speeds up to 22 miles per hour.
The famous black-and-white coloring is called countershading, a special kind of camouflage. Their dark backs help them blend in with the dark ocean depths when a predator looks down from above. Their white bellies hide them against the bright surface of the water when a predator looks up from below. On land, penguins move with a funny, rocking walk called a waddle. To travel quickly and save energy on snow or ice, they flop onto their bellies and slide, a movement called tobogganing.
Life in the Colony: Home and Family
Almost all penguins live exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere; only one species, the Galápagos penguin, lives near the equator. They are highly social and live in huge groups called colonies or rookeries, sometimes with hundreds of thousands of birds living together. This large group living helps keep them safe from predators.
Penguins communicate using many different sounds, and each bird has a unique call that acts like a personal identifier. This unique sound is how a parent can find its own chick even in a massive, noisy colony. Most penguin species lay one or two eggs each breeding season. In many species, the parents take turns keeping the egg warm while the other goes off to hunt for food. The Emperor penguin father performs an amazing feat by balancing the single egg on his feet for weeks during the Antarctic winter while the mother is away hunting. When the chicks get older, they gather together in large groups called crèches, protected by a few adults while the other parents are away fishing.
Underwater Hunters: Diet and Survival Skills
Penguins are carnivores, which means they only eat meat, and their diet mainly consists of krill, fish, and squid caught in the sea. To help them catch and hold onto slippery prey, they do not have teeth. Instead, they have tiny, backward-pointing spines on their tongues and inside their mouths.
A unique adaptation allows them to drink saltwater from the ocean. They have a special gland near their eyes called the supraorbital gland that filters the salt out of their blood, which they then sneeze out.
To survive in the freezing water, penguins have two layers of protection. They have a thick layer of fat, called blubber, under their skin, and their bodies are covered in a dense coat of short, waterproof feathers. These tightly packed feathers trap a layer of air, providing insulation. The Emperor penguin is the world’s deepest diving bird, capable of plunging down to depths of about 1,800 feet to find food.
On land, especially when the weather is harsh, the birds huddle together in a large, moving group to share body heat and stay warm.