The Atlantic puffin is a comical looking bird sometimes nicknamed the “sea parrot” or “clown of the sea”. It has a chunky body with short wings, and a large, colourful bill with serrated edges capable of holding up to 30 fish. It is a highly sociable bird forming colonies of many thousands. However, in recent years breeding failures has seen the population decline and it has been assessed as vulnerable and at risk of global extinction.
Breeding pairs: 580,000
Family: Auks
In breeding season adult puffins have black upperparts and dusky underwings. On the underparts the belly and vent is white.
On the head, the forehead, crown, and nape are black with a black collar above the breast. The face is grey and white and there is a small black patch above and below the eye and a fine black line that extends to the nape.
The distinctive triangular-shaped bill is bulky with horny ridges on the upper mandible that are striped bright orange, blue, and yellow. The bill curves slightly downwards. The eyes are brown with a red eye-ring, and the legs and webbed feet are bright orange.
In winter, the plumage is duller tinged with grey on the upperparts and the white belly turns grey. The face is dark grey with darker marks around the eyes. The bill sheds its outer horny plates and is smaller and thinner and grey in colour. The legs and feet are duller turning yellowish.
Male and female puffins are similar.
Juveniles look like adults but are smaller and have a duller bill with fewer horny plates which give it a long, pointed shape. The legs and feet are duller and pink.
Puffins nest in colonies and are highly territorial. They produce one brood a season. Both adults build the nest in a burrow in the loose soil at the top of a cliff or island. They use their bills and feet to excavate the soil and line the nest chamber at the end of the burrow with dry grasses, feathers, seaweed, and leaves.
Puffins lay a single white egg with brown or pale purple spots which is incubated by both parents for 35-45 days taking turns of about 30 hours each. At hatching the chick is covered in dark brown down. Both parents feed it for about 40 days when it will return to the sea and begin to dive for fish. It can fly 10 days later and reaches sexual maturity at 5 years.
Puffins eat mostly fish but will also supplement their diet with small crustaceans and squid during late summer. Chicks are fed exclusively on fish.
Puffins arrive to breed in the UK during March and April. They are found on coastal colonies around much of the UK except the south and east. They leave in August although some remain in the North Sea over winter.
Although puffins are good fliers and can reach speeds of nearly 90 km/h, they find landing difficult and will crash land into a wave crest or do a belly-flop on to a smoother surface of water.
3 Responses
Puffins are my favoutire bird. My daughter took me to the Farne Islands a few years ago for my 60th birthday andI can honestly say it was one of the most wonderful days of my life. Seeing them up close was something I’ll never forget. I don’t think photographs show how lovely they are. Although these are very very nice. Thank you. Jean
My husband says the the feet of Puffins change colour during mating time,
Is this right or not? Our marriage of 30 years is in jeopardy and I hate being wrong ????.
Thank you.
Did you actually read the articl???? Time for your husband to divorce you MRS Higgins