Australia & NZ (Cruise) -- Nov 2013

This is the first of several photos of yellow eyed penguins inside nest boxes the preserve has built for them. We stopped at view areas for perhaps four different boxes like this. They probably had close to 100 little A-frame shelters like this, but not all were in use by breeding pairs.

I forget what part of the life cycle they were in here. I THINK the penguins are sitting on eggs that have not yet hatched. There is a pair of parents for each nest. One will be on the nest and the other will be out in the ocean feeding. Every few days, the second parent will come back and they will swap places.
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The preserve also has nest boxes for a different type of penguin (the Little Penguin, I think). Those boxes are roughly cubes with small square openings on one side. Some of them were occupied too. However, those were much darker inside. I did not get any usable photos of those other penguins.

I'm pretty sure the photos I have here are of at least two different penguins. The guide could tell us the names of the specific penguins we were looking at (and if it was the male or the female of the breeding pair using the nest), but I didn't jot down that info. (IMG_5185.SX40A.JPG)