Fall in love with the world’s smallest penguin and play a vital role in their conservation with a visit to the Ōamaru Blue Penguin Colony.
Little blue penguin (kororā in Māori) is Aotearoa New Zealand’s smallest penguin, reaching roughly the height of a ten-pin bowling pin. In fact, mobile bowling pins are exactly what these little fellows look like, as they waddle along the shoreline and dive into the ocean. Few species can match the little blue when it comes to cuteness.
Introduced predators and habitat erosion have taken their toll on many little blue penguin colonies. Classified as ‘at risk’, their populations are still declining. When the Ōamaru Blue Penguin Colony(opens in new window) in North Otago was established in 1993, it only had 30 breeding pairs. Thanks to extensive conservation efforts, this number has grown to around 350 breeding pairs, increasing at a rate of ten percent each year.
You can visit the colony at any time of year by booking a guided tour. Revenue from your visit will be used to fund scientific research and take care of the colony.
During the day, penguins like to stay in their nests, or go fishing at sea. The best time to see them is after sunset, when they return home. Evening viewings start at 8:00 pm from a viewing platform, where you can watch penguins waddle in from the shore.
The Ōamaru colony is large, comprising 700-800 birds. However, the number of penguins you can see on any given evening varies. From March to August, you might see between 20 to 50 birds. During the breeding season, from November to December, this number increases to around 250 birds.
From May to June, when birds are pairing up and sorting out nests, they are very noisy. You can sometimes hear them if you visit the coast just after dusk.
Daytime visits are also available between 10:00 am and 6:30 pm. Visitors are taken inside a viewing room to see inside nesting boxes. While sometimes there may be no one home, from August until February, you are guaranteed to see birds incubating eggs, raising chicks, or moulting.
