The Fiordland Crested Penguin which is endemic to New Zealand, is found along the coastlines of Fiordland, Milford Sound, South Westland, Stewart Island and its outlying islands. Being in decline since the 1950's, they are the third rarest penguin species worldwide, with the present population believed to have up to 3,000 breeding pairs. Because they are shy and timid birds, they breed mainly in remote and inaccessible areas. Very little is known about them. However, in 2016 a project team survey confirmed that nearly the whole colony of eggs and chicks belonging to roughly 150 breeding pairs, were wiped out by stoats within a few days at Jackson Head on the West Coast. Stoat trapping is helping their recovery. In late Winter or early Spring the birds form a shallow hollow in the ground ... read morebetween rocks or in hollows at the foot of trees or in caves lined with a few sticks and leaves, where they lay two eggs, which are incubated for about 33 days - the male sits for about 13 days while being fed crustaceans and cephalopods after dark by the female, then the female takes over for about a fortnight. Usually the male is on duty at hatching. Many eggs are lost, but most pairs usually manage to hatch at least one chick. At three weeks the chick joins a crèche - still being fed by the parents, then they make their way up to the heavy undergrowth of the Fiordland rainforest where the dense vegetation protects the young from extremes of heat and cold. They fledge at about 75 days old. They communicate by calls and gestures, and will resist an aggressor by hissing and uttering loud staccato cries. During courtship, males in particular point their bills to the sky, and swing their heads through wide arcs so that the crest becomes a yellow blur. They preen each other and make trumpeting calls together. These calls are recognition signals to each other and their chicks.
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