Humboldt penguin
Spheniscus humboldti Meyen, 1834
The humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti), also called the Peruvian penguin or Humboldt's penguin, is a bird in the penguin family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes. It is a medium-sized marine bird and a carnivorous aquatic predator, with a representative adult body mass of 4.366 kg and reported values from 4.175 to 4.718 kg.
.jpg){kind=link}
Quick facts about the humboldt penguin
It lays 1 clutch of 2 eggs per year, the eggs are incubated for 41.5 days, and it reaches sexual maturity at 3 years. The humboldt penguin is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, a threatened category, and it is partially migratory.
- Weight
- 4.18 kg – 4.72 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 20 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 30 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 41.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 2src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 2.5 years – 3 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the humboldt penguin
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the humboldt penguin live?
Not recorded
What is the humboldt penguin?
The Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, along the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos penguin. The Humboldt penguin and the cold water current it swims in are both named after the explorer Alexander von Humboldt. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN with no population recovery plan in place. The current wild population is composed of roughly 23,800 mature individuals and is declining. It is a migrant species.
Humboldt penguins nest on islands and rocky coasts, burrowing holes in guano and sometimes using scrapes or caves. In South America the Humboldt penguin is found only along the Pacific coast, and the range of the Humboldt penguin overlaps that of the Magellanic penguin on the central Chilean coast. It is vagrant in Ecuador and Colombia. The Humboldt penguin has been known to live in mixed species colonies with the Magellanic penguin in at least two different locations at the south of Chile.
The Humboldt penguin has become a focus of ecotourism over the last decades.
From the Wikipedia article “Humboldt penguin” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Humboldt_penguin&oldid=1381641433), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the humboldt penguin endangered?
The humboldt penguin is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Vulnerable species. What the categories mean.
How is the humboldt penguin classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderSphenisciformes
- familySpheniscidae
- genusSpheniscus
- SpeciesSpheniscus humboldti Meyen, 1834
Synonyms Spheniscus humbolti
Other names and names in other languages (41)
- Humboldt's penguinEnglish
- Peruvian penguinEnglish
- بطريق همبولتArabic
- Хумболтов пингвинBulgarian
- Mank HumboldtBreton
- pingüí de HumboldtCatalan
- tučňák HumboldtůvCzech
- pengwin PeriwWelsh
- HumboldtpingvinDanish
- HumboldtpinguinGerman
- Humboldt-PinguinGerman
- humbolta pingvenoEsperanto
- Pingüino de HumboldtSpanish
- Pajaro niñoSpanish
- guaanopingviinEstonian
- perunpingviiniFinnish
- Manchot de HumboldtFrench
- Pingüín de HumboldtGalician
- פינגווין הומבולדטHebrew
- humboltski pingvinCroatian
- Humboldt-pingvinHungarian
- Pinguino di HumboldtItalian
- フンボルトペンギンJapanese
- Humbolto pingvinasLithuanian
- humboldtpinguïnDutch
- Humboldt-pinguïnDutch
- Pingwin HumboldtaPolish
- pingwin peruwiańskiPolish
- pinguim-de-humboldtPortuguese
- PatrankaQuechua
- Пингвин ГумбольдтаRussian
- Гумбольдтов пингвинRussian
- tučniak jednopásySlovak
- Humboltov pingvinSerbian
- เพนกวินฮัมโบลด์Thai
- Humbold pengueniTurkish
- Humboldt PengueniTurkish
- пінгвін ГумбольдтаUkrainian
- 秘鲁企鹅Chinese
- 洪保德環企鵝Chinese
- 漢波德企鵝Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the humboldt penguin
Other species in the same genus Spheniscus.
African penguin
Spheniscus demersus
Galapagos penguin
Spheniscus mendiculus
Magellanic penguin
Spheniscus magellanicus
CompareHumboldt penguin vs African penguinHumboldt penguin vs Galapagos penguinHumboldt penguin vs Magellanic penguinHumboldt penguin vs Spheniscus megaramphus
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the humboldt penguin?
The humboldt penguin is a bird, a penguin in the family Spheniscidae and order Sphenisciformes.
How heavy is a humboldt penguin?
An adult Humboldt penguin has a representative body mass of 4.366 kg, with reported values from 4.175 to 4.718 kg.
What does the humboldt penguin eat?
The humboldt penguin is a carnivore and an aquatic predator.
Is the humboldt penguin endangered?
The humboldt penguin is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which is a threatened category.
How long does a humboldt penguin live?
The humboldt penguin has a lifespan of 20 years, with values up to 30 years reported.
How many eggs does a humboldt penguin lay?
The humboldt penguin lays 2 eggs per clutch and 1 clutch per year, with an incubation period of 41.5 days.
What habitat does the humboldt penguin live in?
The humboldt penguin lives in marine habitat and has an aquatic lifestyle.
Who named the humboldt penguin?
The humboldt penguin was named Spheniscus humboldti by Meyen in 1834.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/humboldt-penguin
“Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/humboldt-penguin.
@misc{humboldt_penguin_2026,
title = {Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/humboldt-penguin},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}