Northern Royal Albatross Web Camera This is a joint initiative between the Otago Peninsula Trust (OPT), which manages the Royal Albatross Centre, and The Department of Conservation (DOC).

Click here to find out more about wildlife management at Taiaroa Head

The nest site is called “Richdale’s Flat”. This is the area where Dr Lance Richdale, an ornithologist from Dunedin, had his hut in the the late 1930s.

The male (white/yellow/black leg band) is 13 years of age and the female (white/red/black) is an immigrant from the Chatham Island colony, therefore her age is unknown. Their chick, weighing 277g, hatched on 25 January 2008. The male and female will take turns (changing over every 1-3 days) to guard the chick continuously for the first month. After this the chick will be left alone for long periods while both of its parents forage at sea sometimes hundreds of miles away from the colony, returning about every third to fourth day to feed their chick.

One of the main issues the chicks have to face living on a mainland is the constant risk of predators like cats, stoats and ferrets. However, the trapping programme run by the department of conservation staff helps to capture and remove these introduced mammals. (The boxes around the nest are the traps).

The OPT runs the visitor experience at the Royal Albatross Centre, one of the longest running eco-tourism ventures in New Zealand, and the only one that directly contributes towards the fostering and protection of the Northern Royal Albatross at Taiaroa Head/Pukekura.

The Department of Conservation has the responsibility of managing the nature reserve where 10,000 sea birds and the only mainland colony of albatross in the Southern Hemisphere, reside.

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These images are copyright of the Royal Albatross Colony.