Hi Steemit family!

Today I bring you a little about the life of an animal that lives in extremely cold places, its appearance is very nice and sweet, I'm talking about the blue penguins, are originally from New Zealand, join me to learn a little more about these incredible birds.

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Of all the species of penguins they are the smallest, its blue color in its beautiful plumage is unmistakable, bright flashes can be appreciated when the light is reflected in them, other zones as the neck have some gray feathers, in the rest of the body it has white feathers, very similar to the traditional penguins.

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His beak is somewhat short presenting colors between white and black, also is endowed with powerful and large claws while the rest of his legs are pink. Saying goodbye to your age the penguins will have different shades of color in their feathers in adults the gray plumage will end up being white while in the younger ones you can appreciate brown tones, and for their final stage of adulthood and after molting several times their feathers is that they will be distinguished by their beautiful blue color.

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Different scientific studies have shown that blue penguins originate from Chatham and the Banks Peninsula in New Zealand, although it is believed that some periods the blue penguin moved to Phillip Island in Australia and some coastal areas of Tasmania, the last place where you can find one of these small specimens is on Chilean coasts.

They carefully choose sites that have abundant trees, rocks and especially where there are human presence, are very social and friendly birds.

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Their hunting habits are almost always at night, it is very rare to see them hunting during the day, they usually rest after intense food searches, they live in colonies, which indicates that they stay almost always in the same place. They can be grouped with at least 20 specimens or more, you will almost never be alone.

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It has very contrasted differences with other species, to the being very small its capacity to store oxygen is very reduced and in that same order the depth is reduced, as well as the amount of time that they can remain submerged, achieving in greater of the records we 31 meters of depth as maximum, nothing compared with its first one the emperor penguin that is able to submerge up to 70 meters for more than 50 seconds, sufficient time to be rewarded with enough fish.

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Despite having said at the beginning of this publication that his appearance is sweet and tender, this is only the appearance as his behavior is more aggressive than you can imagine. Blue penguins react to any intruder, whether of their own species or any other, using vocalizations, followed by pecking, chasing the intruder for many meters, shaking his body and flapping his wings, all in order to maintain control of a situation in which the danger is present.

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His main food banquets include small fish that he can catch at shallow depths such as sardines and anchovies, squid and small octopus, this depends very much on how deep he can swim in the water.

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They reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age in the case of females, while males may take 1 year longer. In the best case the females will lay 2 eggs whose incubation period will be about 36 days, as in other penguin species the male also helps not only with the incubation but with all the attention that the chick will receive once it has been born. They will have only one partner for their whole life.

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This species is not in extinction list although if they present some risks by natural predators such as birds of prey, dogs and cats as the blue penguins live close to humans have had to deal with domesticated animals. The rest are in very good health and their population is high.