We Saw Fiordland Crested Penguins on Munro Beach, New Zealand

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• The Fiordland Crested Penguin is endemic to New Zealand, and according to the NZ Department of Conservation, is one of the rarest penguins in the world.
• The Maori name for the penguins is tawaki.
• During the nesting season, the main diet of the Fiordland Crested Penguin is juvenile squid, octopus, krill and small fish.
• Fiordland penguins frequently mate for life although fewer than 3000 breeding pairs currently remain.
• Mating pairs separate when not breeding, and it is the females who return each year looking for their mate from the previous season.
• They reach breeding maturity at about five or six years.
• These penguins nest individually or in small colonies between July and December.
• Females lay two white eggs which are incubated for 30-35 days. Sadly, the fiordland crested penguin will only raise one chick maximum each season, so if both hatch, one of the chicks die of starvation.
• Chicks are brooded by the male, who doesn't eat for the initial three weeks.
• Penguins moult all of their feathers over a two week time period, which is very stressful to the birds. Because they don't have their waterproof coating during this time, they cannot enter the water, therefore the penguins do not feed and may lose up to half of their body weight during moulting.