All 17 Penguins Species Photographed over a Decade

While navigating the intricate, rocky shoreline of Dusky Sound in my zodiac, I realised I was on the verge of a unique and completely unplanned milestone – to photograph all seventeen recognised penguin species on the planet. It was of some amusement to me that this seventeenth species should lie on my back doorstep – New Zealand’s magnificent Fiordland National Park. Having worked for over a decade on expedition vessels to remote islands of the Southern Ocean and around the world, I was now only a couple of hundred kilometres from my living room looking for the Tawaki (also known as Fiordland crested penguin).

Within a couple of hours the keen birders amongst our party had one spotted, then several more. Several were in the water which came several metres from my craft, and a few were sitting in well protected cracks on the rocky shoreline. As per usual, the shutters flew, the birders ecstatic as we marvelled in a magical experience viewing one of New Zealand’s true elusive characters in the wild.

And so, with the ‘list’ complete, here are all 17 penguin species (in alphabetical order by english names) as seen through my camera over the past decade:

As always, all photos are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission from myself, and just in case anyone out there is writing a book about the world’s penguins, feel free to contact me, I believe I can help 🙂