Visitor drops by

A little penguin (left) returns from sea and checks out a subantarctic visitor - an erect-crested penguin - at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony.

While roughly 1000 little penguins live at Oamaru Harbour, the erect-crested penguin is a vagrant species, picked up by colony staff on Wednesday, colony science and environmental manager Philippa Agnew said.

The bird was taken to the colony's rehabilitation centre, where it was weighed at 5.12kg.

As it was not clear whether the bird had moulted, it would be monitored before it was released.

The colony also had three Fiordland crested penguins in care, which were due to be micro-chipped and released next week, but this was the first time this year it had taken an erect-crested penguin into care.

Last year, two of the birds, which breed on islands in the Antipodes Island group and the Bounty Islands, were rehabilitated at Oamaru.