Royal Albatross Nest, Taiaroa Head
A northern royal albatross nest at the only mainland colony on Earth, a live webcam on the Otago Peninsula.
About this view
This live cam sits on a northern royal albatross nest at Taiaroa Head, the headland at the end of the Otago Peninsula, the only place in the world where these birds breed on a mainland rather than a remote island. New Zealand's Department of Conservation set the camera up in 2016.
The albatross is a slow, enormous animal: a wingspan of around three metres, a single egg, a chick that sits on the nest for most of a year while its parents commute across the Southern Ocean to feed it. Rangers walk in now and then to weigh the chick, which is as close as the drama gets.
The season runs from eggs in November to a fledging around September (UTC+12, +13 in summer), so a chick is on the nest for most of the year; in the gap between fledging and the next egg the frame may hold only wind and grass.
