Animals Penguins Birds

Penguins are a variety of flightless bird adapted for a life swimming.

Animals penguins birds. Lots of people think penguins are mammals rather than birds because they cant fly and we see them swimming underwater or waddling on land instead. However penguins are classified as birds in zoological terms. They are black and white flightless seabirds of the family spheniscidae which are found in the southern hemisphere chiefly in the antarctic although several species live in more temperate regions. They range in size from the smallest being the little penguin eudyptula minor which stands just 33cm 13in tall.

Blushes of orange and yellow mark the necks of emperor and king penguins. King penguins are on a 14 to 18 month cycle and the timing of an individual pair depends on the success or failure of the previous breeding attempt. There are currently between 17 and 20 recognised species of penguin depending on which authority is followed. Some populations of the gentoo penguin pygoscelis papua also breed in winter.

They live almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere with only one species the galapagos penguin found north of the equator. Most penguins feed on krill fish squid and other forms of sea life which they catch while swimming underwater. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the. Highly adapted for life in the water penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and their wings have evolved into flippers.

Through evolutionary processes penguins wings gradually adapted to become flippers which they use for swimming. Most penguins begin breeding in the austral southern spring or summer. But there are other birds that cant fly like emus ostriches and cassowaries and penguins fulfil all the biological requirements to be classified as birds they have feathers they lay eggs and theyre warm blooded. Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds.