The main threats are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution – particularly oil spills. Although puffins are not classed as an endangered species, populations in some places are in decline. Their main predators are hungry gulls, which can snatch puffins mid-flight or swoop down and scoop their tasty treat from the ground – so they need to keep alert!ġ0. In the wild, these winged wonders live for around 20 years. Both parents take it in turn to incubate the egg for the next 36-45 days before the baby “ puffling” hatches!ĩ. At the back of their burrow home, they build a nest lined with feathers and grass where the female lays her egg.
When starting a puffin family, our feathered friends dig out a burrow using their sharp claws and beak, usually in a grassy bank or rocky crevice. This study is the first to present data on the migratory movements of the large-billed subspecies, F. They usually pair up with the same partner as previous years – some may have been together for 20 years!Ĩ. Although the Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica is well studied throughout its temperate and low Arctic breeding range, few have studied the species in its far northern distribution. In spring and summer, thousands of puffins gather in colonies on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic Ocean to breed. What’s more, these brilliant birds are great swimmers, too! Using their webbed feet as a rudder, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favourite fish.ħ. Puffins eat small fish such as sand eels and herringwhich they hunt underwater.
Puffins are fab flyers, flapping their wings up to 400 times a minute and speeding through the air at up to 88km an hour. Puffins are carnivores and live off small fish such as herring, hake and sand eels.ĥ. In winter, the beak has a dull grey colour, but in spring it blooms with an outrageous orange! It’s thought that the bright colour helps puffins assess potential mates.Ĥ. A puffin’s beak (or bill) changes colour during the year. They thus can bring more food back to their young compared with other seabirds that tend to swallow and regurgitate meals for their chicks.Ask your parents to check out Nat Geo Kids magazine! (AD)ģ. Their raspy tongues and spiny palates allow them to firm grasp 10 to 12 fish during one foraging trip. brilliantly colored beaks of Atlantic Puffins also light-up - like a glow stick! - when exposed to ultra-violet (UV) light.ġ.Puffins are one of the few birds that have the ability to hold several small fish in their bills at a time. Compared with other auks, which tend to stay just a few feet above the sea, puffins usually maintain a cruising altitude of around 30 feet.Ģ. There are currently eight isles around the world named Puffin Island-so named because they all are or once were home to large colonies of puffins.ģ. Waterproof feathers allow them stay warm as they float at the oceans surface or swim underwater. They can dive 200 feet deep in search of fish, and they can hold their breath up to two minutes at a time while underwater. Puffins are specially adapted to living on the open sea. They’re fast flyers and that helps to propel them when they dive into the water. Puffins may chatter up a storm at their breeding colonies, but they remain perfectly silent while at sea.Ĥ. Puffins are social creatures, so they hunt together in groups out in the ocean. Like some penguins, both parents take turns incubating the egg and caring for the chick.ĥ. Puffins lay just one egg per year-and usually with the same mate. A puffin weighs about the same as a can of Coke.Ħ. The puffins’ genus name, Fratercula, comes from the Latin for “little brother.” The name refers to the sea bird’s black and white plumage, which was said to resemble the robes that monks once wore.ħ. The fourth species, the rhinoceros auklet, doesn’t look like the other three – it’s ashen colored, with a rhino-like protrusion during the breeding season. During the mating season, straw-like feathers protrude from the crown of the tufted puffin’s head. The Atlantic and horned puffins look quite similar, with the exception of a blue-grey triangle at the base of the Atlantic puffin’s beak. There are four species of puffins, three of which are slightly distinguishable from one another. Just before winter sets in, they shed the colorful outer bill, leaving a noticeably smaller and duller-colored beak.ĩ. Puffins only possess Technicolor bills-and their matching orange feet-during the spring breeding season. Puffin facts A baby puffin is called a puffling They grow to just under 30cm tall Puffins can see UV light, making their beaks glow These colourful beaks turn dark in winter They eat small squid, herring and sardines Puffins are nicknamed 'clowns of the sea' They can swim to a depth of 60 metres.
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