Fun Adelie Penguin Facts

Birdorable Adelie Penguins

Here are some fun facts about the Adélie Penguin, a species that captures the essence of the Antarctic's unique wildlife:

  • The Adélie Penguin holds the distinction of being the smallest penguin species residing in the Antarctic. Despite their diminutive size, they are hardy and well-adapted to the harsh conditions of their icy habitat.
  • Known for their southern breeding range, Adélie Penguins nest and raise their chicks farther south than any other penguin species, showcasing their incredible adaptability to extreme cold.
  • These resilient birds have a lifespan that can reach up to 20 years old, demonstrating remarkable endurance in one of the planet's most challenging environments.
  • Adélie Penguin colonies vary widely in size, ranging from as few as 100 pairs to as many as 250,000 pairs. These large congregations highlight their social nature and the importance of community for survival.
  • Globally, there are approximately 5 million Adélie Penguins, spread across 38 different colonies. While this number may seem large, it's worth noting that over the last 25 years, their population has decreased by 65%. This decline is attributed to factors like sea ice reduction and food scarcity.
  • The Adélie Penguin was named in 1840 by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who chose to honor his wife, Adélie, with this nomenclature.
  • Adélie Penguins have made appearances in popular culture, most notably in animated films. They are presumed to be the penguin characters in the 2005 film "Madagascar." In the 2006 movie "Happy Feet," the main character, an Emperor Penguin, befriends a group of Adélie Penguins, uniquely characterized by a Mexican accent.

These fascinating facts about Adélie Penguins offer a glimpse into the life of one of Antarctica's most charming inhabitants, highlighting both their unique characteristics and the challenges they face in an ever-changing environment.

Adelie Penguins photo

Adelie Penguins by Gregory Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)

Cute Adelie Penguin Gifts

T-Shirt Tuesday: PI-geon

This week's highlighted t-shirt is this women's tank top with our funny PI-geon design featuring the Birdorable Rock Pigeon standing above the word PIgeon, part of which is made of the symbol for PI.

Birdorable PI-geon Women's Tank Top

Introducing the Birdorable Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Cute Birdorable Eurasian Tree Sparrow

We've added a few new Birdorable birds this week, the first one being this Eurasian Tree Sparrow. In eastern Asia this cute little bird is widespread in towns and cities, but in Europe, where the House Sparrow is occupying the cities, it is a bird of wooded areas and open countryside. It is not an endangered bird globally, but it is declining in western Europe due to change in farming practices and use of herbicides. There is also a small population of about 15,000 birds in the United States, around St. Louis and parts of Illinois and Iowa. These birds, believe it or not, are descendants of 12 birds taken over from Germany that were released in 1870 in an attempt to enhance the North American avifauna. The birds were set free in Lafayette Park in St. Louis by a local bird dealer. Other European birds were also released, including Goldfinches and Chaffinches, but only the Eurasian Tree Sparrow successfully established a breeding population. If you're ever in St. Louis and want to find a Eurasian Tree Sparrow you can find some good instructions here.

Photo of Eurasian Tree Sparrow

T-Shirt Tuesday: Birdorable Masterpiece

The famous painting known as Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most famous paintings in the world, but it was always missing something. With the addition of some cute Birdorable Budgies, the Mona Lisa is truly a Birdorable Masterpiece.

Birdorable Mona Lisa Organic Toddler T-Shirt

Common Kestrel Coloring Page

We present to you another Birdorable Coloring Page: the Common Kestrel, also known as the European Kestrel. These birds are so cute! When we lived in Europe we often saw them hovering next to the highway. Go to Coloring Pages to download these two new PDFs. You can check our Meet the Birds page to get some color guidance.

Birdorable Common Kestrel coloring page

Check here for more coloring pages. Subscribe to the Birdorable Blog by RSS feed or by email to get notified when new downloads like this are added. Have you used our coloring pages at home, in your classroom, or at an event? We'd love to hear about it! Send us photos of the pages in action, or the final result - we may showcase them on our blog!

Since we moved to our new home (in northern Illinois) we've been trying to attract birds to our backyard. The first few weeks we didn't see a single bird at our feeders. The first bird to visit was an American Goldfinch at the end of February. In the last 3 months we've seen 19 different species in our backyard. We now have eight feeders and a bird bath and it's busy every day. It's so much fun to sit outside and watch the birds. My favorite backyard birds are the Baltimore Orioles. We have some oranges out for them on our fence.

Baltimore Oriole (male)
Male Baltimore Oriole

Here are some pictures of our backyard birds. Most of these pictures were made with our Wingscapes Birdcam:

House Finch
House Finches
Common Grackle
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole (female)
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
Northern Flickr
Northern Flicker

What is your favorite backyard bird?

T-Shirt Tuesday: I Love Tits

This week's highlighted t-shirt is our I Love Tits design for anyone who loves our cute Birdorable tits, which are shown in parentheses below: a Tufted Titmouse, a Boreal Chickadee and a Black-capped Chickadee on this design show that the tits you love are cute little birds. What else were you thinking?

Birdorable I Love Tits Light T-Shirt

For more funny tees check out our Funny Designs section.

Here's another Birdorable coloring page. This time it's the Birdorable Keel-billed Toucan. Click the following link to download a PDF and print the page for some cute bird coloring fun:

(if you cannot open these PDF files you'll need to install Adobe Reader) To see the actual colors of this bird visit the Birdorable Keel-billed Toucan page.

Birdorable Keel-billed Toucan coloring pages

Subscribe to the Birdorable Blog by RSS feed or by email to get notified of new Birdorable coloring pages. You can check out our other coloring pages here.

10 Cool Facts about Snowy Owls

Here are ten fun facts about the Snowy Owl. Don't forget to check out our customizable Snowy Owl t-shirts and gifts and other cute Birdorable owls.

  1. Snowy Owls are diurnal, which means that unlike most other owls they are active and hunt during the day and night.
  2. The diet of Snowy Owls consists mainly of lemmings. They are known to sit and wait for their prey and spend most of their time perched still and silent on prominent lookouts.
  3. Lemming populations are cyclic and in years when lemming populations are down Snowy Owls often leave the arctic regions and fly south in search of food. Because of this, about once every four years Snowy Owls are found as far south as the northern and central United States.
  4. An adult Snowy Owl can eat three to five lemmings per day, or up to 1,600 per year.
  5. The feathers of Snowy Owls have no pigment, leaving more space for air which helps them to keep warmer because air is such a good insulator.
  6. Their legs and toes are heavily feathered to protect them from the harsh weather in cold arctic regions.
  7. Snowy Owls often hang out at airports, perhaps because the wide open spaces remind them of the tundra.
  8. Although Snowy Owls have few predators, they still have to be watchful of arctic foxes, wolves and other animals during the nesting season. Males defend the nest by standing guard nearby while the female incubates the eggs and broods the young. When a predator approaches both parents will dive-bomb (even wolves!) and try to distract them away from the nest.
  9. The Snowy Owl is also known as the Arctic Owl or Great White Owl. A group of owls has many different names, including a bazaar, glaring, parliament, stooping and a wisdom of owls.
  10. The breeding range of the Snowy Owl is circumpolar, ranging across the northern regions of Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaskia and Canada.

Birdorable Snowy Owl Gifts