Megadyptes antipodes

Oh my god oh my god oh my god! It's the Yellow-Eyed Penguin!!

There it is. The bird of my dreams. Just standing there on Bushy Beach in Oamaru, New Zealand. No big deal.

Behold, New Zealand's rare and endemic beauty. The Yellow Eyes are rearing chicks this time of year and Oamaru's colony always has around 6 pairs. I drove over to the beach after arriving in the town I've been anticipating perhaps more than any other, the self-proclaimed penguin capital of the world with two mainland breeding species. Once at the hide I only had to wait a half hour or so before the first penguin washed itself onto the beach and scuttled up the sand to meet its chicks in the bush, who were trumpeting for their parent's return. A little while later came another, and then another, and then another. Amazing.

Yellow-Eyed Penguins breed along the southeast coast of the South Island and on more southerly offshore islands. They are the only extant species of the genus Megadyptes, distinct in their solitary breeding habits and relatively unsocial behavior. They feature a unique golden-yellow band around their head and a yellow iris. With only a few thousand individuals in existence, it is one of the rarest species of penguin in the world.

What words can properly convey the feeling of fulfillment in seeing a new penguin species? Perhaps none.

Backblips begin 6th January.