All About Penguins By: Alex A penguin cares for its young and survives in the extreme conditions by having special body features and also by having special habits. Penguins are flightless birds. A lot of penguins prefer living in very cold climates. Most penguins live together in colonies called rookeries. Hundreds of birds can live in these colonies. Most penguins lay two eggs. Penguins live in a lot of odd areas with different climates. Ice and snow cover 98% of the whole continent of Antarctica. Ice in Antarctica can get 11,500 feet thick. Though penguins are found mostly in Antarctica not all penguins live in icy or snowy areas. Some penguins even live in South Africa. In the wild, all penguins live in the southern half of the world. Penguins lay their eggs in nests to keep them safe. Penguins lay their eggs in nests in their rookeries so the eggs will be safe. Penguins build their nests from pebbles, mud, and plants. The penguins make these nests to make the chicks warm. Adelie Penguins love stones like they are diamonds because rocks are very rare where they live. The Adelie Penguins make their nests completely out of rocks. Sometimes, Adelie Penguins even steal rocks from their neighbors. Macaroni Penguins are living the dangerous life. They build their nests on steep slopes, even on volcanoes. Penguins only visit land to raise their young. Father huddles around the eggs to keep the eggs warm. During the whole breeding period the mother leaves the father. Gentoos penguins take turns sitting on the egg. Penguins guard the chicks until they can guard themselves. Father penguins help raise the young. The father penguin sits on the egg for a long time to keep it safe. The father penguin sits on the egg for 65 days while the mom is looking for food. In this process the father balances the egg under it’s belly fat. During that period the father doesn't eat. Just as he is about to starve the mom comes back and the dad eats. The father has a pouch in the back of his mouth which creates milk. That milk he feeds to the chick baby penguin. He takes the chicks mouth and makes that milk which is poured into the chicks mouth and then the chick eats it. When the female lays the egg, she gives it to the father and she goes to sea, to restore body fat. A penguin has to keep a chick warm and catch food for it. Adelie penguins vomit part fish and part milk into the chicks mouth to feed it. Then penguins throws up food into chicks mouth to feed it. Penguins eat a lot of fish. They also eat krill, squid, and crustaceans. To catch this food, penguins have hooked beaks so they can catch food and the food won’t escape. On the penguins tongue there are backwards bristles that force the wriggling prey down the throat. Penguins can go 120 days without food. While one penguin sits on the eggs the other finds food. Penguins communicate a lot together. When two penguins bow and flap their wings it shows they are a pair. If a penguin is pointing it’s beak it wants the penguin to go away. When a baby chick is hungry and wants to be feed it taps on the parents beak. As you can see the penguin can survive in the extreme because of its habits and unique body parts. The penguin is a special creature that can survive.It can face any challenge and stay standing. Penguins are one really unique creature. Alex Sorted by Call Number / Author. 598.47 BON Bone, Emily. Penguins. London : Usborne ;, 2009. 598.47 BRE Bredeson, Carmen. Emperor penguins up close. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Elementary, c2006. 598.47 GIB Gibbons, Gail. Penguins! New York : Holiday House, c1998. 598.47 JEN Jenkins, Martin. The emperor's egg. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 1999. 598.47 MET Mettler, René. Penguins. New York : Scholastic, [1996], c1995. 598.47 NIV Niver, Heather Moore. 20 fun facts about penguins. 1st ed. New York : Gareth Stevens Pub., c2012. 598.47 PAT Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Looking at penguins. 1st ed. New York : Holiday House, c1993. 98.47 RES Resnick, Jane Parker. Penguins. Chicago : Kidbooks, Inc., c1997. 598.47 Rob Robinson, Claire, 1955­. Penguins. Crystal Lake, IL : Heinemann Library, c1997. 598.47 STE Stefoff, Rebecca, 1951­. Penguin. New York : Benchmark Books, c1998. The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. Chicago, IL: World Book