Atlantic Puffin
Fratercula arctica
Aves › Charadriiformes › Alcidae › Fratercula
Conservation status: vulnerable
The Atlantic Puffin is a distinctive seabird with a stocky black and white body, bright orange legs, and a large colorful bill that's striped with blue, yellow, and orange, making it instantly recognizable. These skilled divers spend most of their lives at sea hunting for small fish, returning to rocky coastal cliffs only during breeding season where they nest in burrows.
How To Identify
The Atlantic Puffin is a medium-sized seabird easily distinguished by its brilliantly colored head and chest patch. Males sport an enormous, triangular bill—a striking mosaic of orange, blue, and grey—while the body plumage tends toward slate grey and white.
Habitat
Atlantic Puffins breed on rocky coastal cliffs and offshore islands in the North Atlantic, and spend winters at sea in open ocean waters.
Behaviour
They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to 'fly' underwater while hunting, and they dig burrows or nest in cliff crevices where they raise a single chick each breeding season.
Native Range
The Atlantic puffin is native to regions including Russia, Iceland, Ireland, Britain, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, the Faroe Islands, Maine, and France (Brittany).
Did You Know?
Atlantic Puffins can dive to depths of up to 200 feet and hold their breath for over a minute while hunting for small fish. Their beaks can hold multiple fish at once—a record of 62 sand eels has been documented in a single beak load.
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