Page 53 - 2008 NZ Subantarctic Islands

braying at one another for these birds. They sit silently or walk

without speaking back and forth to the sea. Because of these
traits, the yellow-eyes are much harder to find. Sight and sound

do not help locate the birds. And because they are not all
bunched together, there is no characteristic guano smell radiating

out from their homes. So the sense of smell doesn’t help locate
them either.

Knowing their habitats and habits is the key to finding them. Even
armed with this knowledge and led by birding experts, we located

only one yellow-eye near a nest containing two chicks. The nest
was located deep in the rata forest we threaded our way through

and it was no more secure or secret than an overhanging bank of
a dry watercourse. The parent bird was quite aware of our

presence as we gathered together in the very “huddling behavior”
the birds scorn. Our group crouched low, some even lying on the
damp earth to get eye level pictures. It was dark beneath the

protecting bank and difficult to get good looks, much less photos,
of the chicks but we persevered for quite a long time. The parent

bird was much easier to watch since it stood around for quite a
long time. Finally it must have decided that we were not a threat

to the chicks and it wandered off toward the sea (a very long way
off)—or maybe it was trying the old “decoy” trick of leading us

away from the chicks. The twins were all covered in plushy gray
down and did not really venture out of their hideaway at all. The
yellow-eyed penguin gets it name from a very bright and obvious

yellow eye encircled by pale yellow feathers that also wrap
completely around the back of his head.

Otherwise, he looks pretty much like all the other penguin species
rd
in his smart tuxedo feathering. This penguin is the 3 largest of
the penguins, after the Emperor and the King, and it stands 30

inches tall and weighs about 14 lbs.
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