Little Blue Penguin Nest Box, New Plymouth Live Cam

An infrared camera looks into a little blue penguin nest box on the Taranaki coast at New Plymouth, New Zealand. The grey night-vision picture shows the rocky floor and walls of the nest chamber with a date and time stamp in the corner.

The kororā, or little blue penguin, is the smallest penguin in the world and nests in burrows, rock walls and artificial boxes along the New Zealand shore. Near Port Taranaki and Ngāmotu Beach, local volunteers keep nest boxes and check the birds that use them. The birds feed at sea and normally come ashore after dusk.

The view is a fixed close-up inside the box rather than a landscape. Infrared lighting keeps the picture monochrome at any hour, and the chamber is often empty in the daytime while the adults are away at sea, so the birds are most likely to be seen after they return to the nest.