The Fairy Penguin, also known as the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor), is the world’s smallest penguin species, found along the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand. This marine bird spends its days foraging in the water before returning to its coastal burrows at dusk, making it a central-place forager. Its diet and feeding habits are closely tied to the productive, shallow waters near its colonies.
The Core Diet Composition
The diet of the Fairy Penguin is largely piscivorous, focusing on small fish, but it is highly opportunistic, adapting to what is locally and seasonally abundant. The primary food source consists of small schooling fish, typically pelagic species found in the water column. Common examples include anchovies, pilchards, and sometimes young barracouta or red cod. In some colonies, fish can account for over three-quarters of the penguin’s food intake.
The second major category of prey is cephalopods, including small squid and octopus. These items provide a different nutritional profile, supplementing the energy obtained from fish.
Crustaceans form the third component of the diet, though generally in smaller amounts than fish and cephalopods. This includes krill and small shrimp, which are often consumed incidentally while hunting other prey. In poor seasons, the penguins may resort to consuming less nutritionally dense items like jellyfish, which can negatively impact their breeding success.
Hunting Strategies and Feeding Grounds
Fairy Penguins are pursuit-divers that use their wings as flippers to “fly” underwater at high speeds, allowing them to quickly capture fast-moving prey. They are active hunters, capable of diving between 200 and 1,300 times per day. Their dives are relatively shallow compared to larger penguin species, with the average depth ranging from 10 to 30 meters.
Most foraging trips occur during the day, and they typically stay close to the shore, usually within a few kilometers of the colony, particularly during the breeding season. Their hunting is focused on the middle of the water column or near the seabed, where schooling fish aggregate.
The penguins also engage in “rafting,” where they congregate in groups offshore before returning to the colony at dusk. While this behavior is often associated with predator avoidance, foraging groups of similar-aged penguins have also been observed, suggesting a possible element of group hunting for small, schooling prey. By staying near the coast, they reduce the energetic costs of long-distance travel, but this also increases their vulnerability to localized changes in prey availability.
Seasonal Shifts and Prey Availability
The Little Penguin’s diet changes significantly throughout the year, primarily in response to the high-energy demands of breeding and molting. During the chick-rearing period, parents require a substantial increase in caloric and protein intake to feed their young, often needing to catch approximately 25% of their own body weight in food daily. This heightened need requires them to focus on the most energy-rich prey available, such as larger schooling fish.
Following the breeding season, the penguins undergo a “catastrophic molt,” losing all their feathers at once. To prepare for this two- to three-week fast, they must intensively forage and build up substantial fat reserves, as they cannot enter the water to feed during this period. After the molt, their foraging effort increases again to restore body condition.
Environmental factors, such as ocean currents and sea surface temperature, strongly influence the availability and distribution of their prey. Rising ocean temperatures can cause a mismatch between the timing of their breeding and the peak availability of food sources. Localized shifts in prey, like those caused by La Niña, can force the penguins to change their diet or travel farther, which can lead to poor breeding success and increased mortality.