Humboldt penguin

How it lives

Humboldt penguins nest in colonies on rocky islands and coasts, often in burrows dug in guano or in caves and crevices. Pairs lay two eggs, which take about 41 days to hatch. Chicks leave the nest at about 10 to 12 weeks. Breeding can happen through much of the year, with peaks around April and August to September. Adults moult once a year, around January, and stay on land without feeding for about two weeks. Wild lifespans are poorly known; the 15 to 20 years often quoted come from zoos.

Where it goes

Humboldt penguins do not migrate. Satellite tracking found that about 90 percent of locations came from within roughly 35 km of the breeding site. During strong El Niño events, birds have been tracked far offshore, up to about 895 km, looking for food.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Breeding is limited to the coasts of Peru and Chile. IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable (2020) with a declining trend. Counts differ between sources. One summary gives about 23,800 mature individuals (2020). A 2025 paper estimated about 36,982 birds across both countries and argued that the species should be treated as Endangered. The same paper estimated about 4,067 penguins caught in small-scale fishing nets across 39 ports in 2023, 2,624 of them in Peru. A 2024 paper puts the numbers at about 1 million in the 1850s and under 10,000 in 2019.