Our Favorite Penguin Pictures: Fuzzy Chicks, Expert Divers, More

Admiring the View

Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic

A colony of gentoo penguins perch on a rocky cliff on Danco Island, Antarctica.

In honor of Penguin Awareness Day, we decided to dive into the National Geographic photo archive to look at the bird with the iconic tuxedo coat and characteristic waddle. (See more penguin pictures.)

All 17 species of penguins, which range in size from the 3.3-pound (1.5 kilogram) little blue penguin to the 88-pound (40 kilogram) emperor penguin, live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Flightless and comically awkward on land, they spend the majority of their time in the water, and their bodies are streamlined for swimming.

Keep clicking to see our favorite penguin pictures.