The penguin is a bird that cannot fly. It spends most of its time in the ocean. The penguin stands upright and has short legs and a torpedo-shaped body. Penguins can walk about as fast a human on land. They climb steep rocky slopes, and sometimes they hop from rock to rock! Some penguins toboggan across ice and snow. The penguins began to spend more of their time in the water and millions of years ago, they lost the ability to fly. Their wings started to look and move like flippers. This change helped greatly by making penguins excellent swimmers. The penguins "fly" underwater the same way as birds in the air. The body of a penguin is well accustomed to the sea. They are covered with short, thick feathers that are a waterproof coat. The feathers are black or blue-gray except on their stomachs, where the feathers are white. Some penguins have yellow or orange feathers on their head, neck or breast. Some penguins have beaks that are red, orange, black, even bright purple! The feet can be black, blue, or pink. Some penguins have crests of feathers on their head. There are 17 known species. The largest penguin is the emperor penguin, standing 4 feet tall, and weighing in at a whopping 100 pounds. That’s pretty heavy for a penguin! The smallest of the family is the fairy penguin. This penguin stands 1 foot tall and weighs a measly 5-15 pounds. Penguins can swim up to 8 miles per hour. Sometimes they can reach up to 3 time that speed in short bursts. Some penguins dive up to 900 feet. The longest divers can hold their breath for 20 minutes. Penguins eat fish, squid, crabs, and shrimp. Some penguins live in the Galapagos Islands, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. Penguins live in groups called colonies. Penguins can have from 1-3 eggs, depending solely on the species. Penguins call to one another with a braying sound that sounds like a donkey. Penguins burrow under large rocks and bushes. Antarctic penguins dig out pebbles for nests because the frozen ground is too hard. The penguin carries their chicks or eggs on their feet to keep them warm. Penguin eggs take from 30-65 days to hatch. The larger the species the longer the hatching time is. As you can see, a penguin is a very interesting animal.

Here are the different scientific types.