A is for Adélie

The Adélie Penguin, the smallest of all Antarctic penguins (45cm – 70cm) loves the cold. He is part of the brush tail penguin family as they have a brushy tail which sweeps the surface as he waddles along. He has white eye rings around those birdy eyes. The French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1840 founded Adélie Land on the Australian side of the Antarctic continent and subsequently named the land and the Adélie penguin after his wife Adèle Dumont d’Urville. They feed mainly on sea krill. Adélie breed around October/November, their nests consist of stones piled together which makes a safe place for the parent to incubate the egg. In December, the warmest month in Antarctica (about −2 °C or 28 °F), the parents take turns incubating the egg; one goes to feed and the other stays to warm the egg. The parent that is incubating does not eat. In March, the adults and their young return to the sea for a really good feed. The Adélie penguin lives on sea ice, but needs the ice-free land to breed. With a reduction in sea ice, populations of the Adélie penguin have dropped by 65% over the past 25 years in the Antarctic Peninsula and the birds have had to go further south to find ice. This little penguin is a joy to watch as they are usually very busy doing something, bringing stones to their loved ones for the nest or going from shore into the sea or just generally chattering.