Mai and Fairy Penguins at Phillip Island

I’ve just had one of my best wildlife experiences at the Phillip Island penguin parade. These penguins are called Fairy Penguins/little penguins and are the smallest penguins species (average height of 30-33 cm) and canbe found in the southern part of Australia, New Zealand and aparently Chile.

The Penguins go for a swim in the sea to find food & then return at dawn. Their back are deep blue, indiglo colour and their stomachs are white colour. Theres are very important feature for their survival against preys. When they float in the water while they rest (including sleeping!), the deep blue color will act as camouflage against predators from below a and their white belly will be hard to see from the sky. After dinner is finished they all swim back (seemingly together) to land to checkout their chicks which lives in burrows under the sand. This is why it’s called the Penguins Parade !

We were seated at the theatre, right in front of the beach.The Penguin Parade happens when the sun is gone (i.e. sky is dark). One small group of penguins will swim ashore and ‘test’ the safety of the land against seagulls. Some of them may go back to into the water. Once a small group of brave penguins move forward, the rest will follow. Then the parade officially starts. It was quite an amazing experience as you see hundreds of penguins coming ashore. As soon as they are on land they start making noises to identify their chicks’ burrows. Penguins can identify their individual chicks by the chicks noise.

The parade started at 20:10 pm and lasted for approximately one hour with about 401 penguins seen. I left after 45 minutes and walked along the broadway where I could get a closer encounter with the penguins as they retreated to their burrows . Again, this also was an extraordinary experience!!

It is recommended that you arrive one hour prior to the start of the penguin parade. You need to check for timing from the official website. In this website, you can also purchase tickets including their famous 3 parks pass which give you access for the Penguin Parade and the Nobbies Centre, Koala Conservation Centre and Churchil Island.

Related posts:

1. Nobbies Centre, Phillip Island