By Julie

Our next penguins, the Yellow-eyed Penguins, live up to their name. Their eyes of pale yellow, gleaming like bright topaz gems, will grab your interest right away. These intruiging penguins are the rarest out of all of them! Their population is 1,500 to 2,000 pairs, which is very few next to the macaroni, which probably has around 2,000,000 pairs! They live on the coast of New Zealand and a few more southern islands. They nest in forests! They can be seen residing in little nests resembling shallow bowls, lined with twigs and grasses, like a sparrow or some other flying bird’s nest. However, the yellow-eyed penguins’ nests are on the forest floor where they can reach. These penguins need a lot of personal space: most of the time, nests are spaced out widely to one nest per hectare! This proves that the penguins seek solitude: they are the least socialable of all the penguins and seem to enjoy being out of sight of others except their mates and chicks. Even the little chicks don’t huddle off in créches, or nursery groups, like most penguin types. They like to stick with their parents. If you watch, some people see yellow-eyed penguins scuttle down to the sea to catch food at dawn or dusk! Their diet is 85% fish and 15% squid. They much catch a lot to eat, since they’re such swift swimmers! Another amazing fact about these penguins is that they can live to 20 years old! Yellow-eyed penguins are probably the closest penguins to the “original penguin” in appearance. They have grey-blue backs and white bellies. Their bills are red-purple. They are the third largest penguin, after the emperor and king. They get their name from their stunning yellow eyes. A crown of yellow feathers circles their eyes and wraps around the back of their head. However amazing these penguins are, they are classified as threatened or endangered. Their forests are sometimes chopped down, forcing these brilliant birds to nest in high grasses. Mammals, like dogs, cats, and ferrets that people have brought to the country can harm or eat them there! A Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust was formed to help save these penguins. Every school in New Zealand got educational resource kits, and with everyone pitching in, the lives of yellow-eyed penguins began to improve. It fills me with joy that if people try hard enough, they can save species! If you can’t believe all of these interesting facts about yellow-eyed penguins, go to New Zealand and spot these birds with their beautiful yellow eyes for yourself!
NOTE: This nonfiction paragraph I researched and wrote on my own time.