Blue Penguin/Korora

The blue penguin is the smallest penguin in the world, standing just 25 cm tall and weighing a little over 1 kg. Its plumage is slate-blue with a bright white belly and it lacks any type of crest.

 In Canterbury, experts also recognise a separate sub-species, known as the white flippered penguin. It is difficult to distinguish from the blue penguin, but to the discerning eye the white flippered is slightly larger, lighter in colour and has a characteristic broader white band at the front of its flipper.

Blue penguins only come ashore under the cover of darkness and live underground in burrows, natural holes, or under human structures and buildings. They remain around their colony all year, although they may make long foraging trips of more than 70 km during the non-breeding period.

The population and range of the little blue penguin has been declining in areas not protected from predators. Where predator control is in place, populations have been stable or increasing.

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