Crested & Little Penguins

Spheniscidae

Crested & Little Penguins

Crested Penguins

Genus Eudyptes

A group of rather similar medium sized penguins with yellow crests and strong orange red bills. They differ mainly in the size and shape of the crest, but are otherwise very much alike and obviously closely related. The Rockhopper and Fjordland Crested are the smaller species, standing about 55 cm high and the Royal is the largest with a length of about 76 cm.

Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome, circumpolar distribution in subantarctic and antarctic waters.

E. c. chrysocome, breeding Falklands and islands off South America.

E. c. filholi, breeding Prince Edward, Crozets, Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie, Campbell, Auckland and Antipode Is.

E. c. moseleyi, breeding Tristan da Cunha, Gough, Amsterdam and St. Paul's Is.

Macaroni Penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus, circumpolar distribution, breeding on many islands in southern Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Royal Penguin E. schlegeli, breeding on Macquarie I.

Fiordland Crested, Victoria, Thick-billed or New Zealand Crested Penguin Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, breeding southern New Zealand.

Fiordland Crested Penguin Eudyptes pachyrhynchus

Australia

Culmen: 49.2 mm; total: 122.9 mm, unsexed adult

Snares Island, Snares or Snares Crested Penguin Eudyptes robustus, breeding Snares Is.
Erect Crested Penguin Eudyptes sclateri, breeding mainly Bounty and Antipodes Is.

Little Penguin

Genus Eudyptula

Only one species with several subspecies with slight differences in size and plumage and considerable overlap in measurements. New Zealand subspecies albosignata is the largest. Northern subspecies such as iredalei tend to be smaller. Males are larger than females and have heavier bills. Juveniles have more slender bills. Separation of subspecies based on skulls is hardly possible.

White-flippered Penguin Eudyptula minor albosignata

Clarence, South Island, New Zealand

Culmen: 38.0 mm; total: 79.3 mm, adult male

Little, Fairy, Blue or Little Blue Penguin Eudyptula minor, Australia and New Zealand. Six subspecies:
E. m. minor, New Zealand, southern part South Island.
E. m. iredalei, New Zealand, northern part of North Island.
E. m. variabilis, New Zealand, southern North Island, Cook Strait area, northern South Island
White-flippered Penguin E. m. albosignata, New Zealand, Canterbury Coast of South Island.
E. m. chathamensis, Chatham Islands.
E. m. novaehollandiae, southern Australia and Tasmania

Literature

Williams, T.D., 1995, The Penguins, Spheniscidae, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Back to the home page