Puffins are very curious and will rush over to watch a pair billing or fighting, so that these events are often surrounded by a crowd of spectators. On land puffins stand upright and walk or hop about with apparent great care over the uneven terrain of the colony. They also have trouble landing and often crash onto the sea or tumble onto the grass, bowling over other puffins that get in their way. They have difficulty becoming airborne and flap their wings at an amazing 300 to 400 beats per minute to maintain flight. Wheels also may be important to immature puffins, allowing them to learn about the colony without a high risk of being killed. Puffins returning to or leaving the colony can join the wheel and then drop out near their burrow or on the sea. They probably serve as an anti-predator tactic by confusing or swamping the predator and reducing the chance that an individual puffin will be killed (or their prey stolen). These puffin "wheels" are common behaviour at most colonies, but are more frequent at colonies where there is much gull predation. Observers at puffin colonies are often impressed by large groups flying in wide circles over the sea in front of their nesting grounds. If not, fights break out, and it is not uncommon to see two puffins tumbling down a slope with their bills locked together in combat. Puffing up their feathers, opening their bills, and making other threat displays is usually enough to scare off newcomers. Early in the season many birds are "house-hunting," and owners have to defend their sites. In eastern Canada, most puffins return to their colonies in April. Puffins normally keep the same mate and the same burrow from year to year. For about four to five months every year they come to land to breed, but even then they spend a lot of time at sea. Puffins are true seabirds, spending most of their time swimming, diving, and feeding. Puffins make loud growling calls usually from underground, which sound like a muffled chainsaw. At one end the bill and head cut through the water, which passes smoothly over the streamlined body, and at the other end, legs and feet act as rudders. They have short wings and powerful wing muscles. They are compact, strong birds with a relatively long body. Puffins are superbly adapted to swimming underwater, and much of their general shape can be attributed to the demands of this activity. Adults in winter plumage and immature puffins are sometimes confused with murres. Immature puffins look similar to winter adults but have smaller and more pointed bills. New bill and face plates and new feathers around the head complete the dressing up for the next breeding season. In the late winter and spring it becomes flightless for a short period while it replaces its wing and tail feathers, which have become tattered after a year’s use.
The Atlantic Puffin looks so different in the winter that people once thought it was a different species. Its face becomes dark, especially around and in front of the eye. The sexes look the same, although males tend to be slightly larger than females.Īfter the breeding season, the adult puffin sheds the colourful plates on its bill and around the eyes as well as the feathers on its head and neck. The upper parts, including the head, back, and wings, are black and contrast dramatically with the brilliant white underparts. A puffin’s greyish white face is decorated with fleshy yellow rosettes at the base of the bill and red rings and small bluish plates around the eyes. The bill is wide in profile and narrow side-to-side. The familiar breeding adult has a striking orange, yellow, and bluish bill and matching bright orange feet. Upper right: adult Atlantic Puffin in winter plumage. Upper left: adult Atlantic Puffin in breeding plumage. Auks are diving seabirds of the northern hemisphere and use their wings to propel themselves underwater in pursuit of prey such as small fish. Puffins belong to the family of birds called the auks, or Alcidae other members of the family are the Dovekie, murres, guillemots, the Razorbill, auklets, murrelets, and the extinct Great Auk. Most people know a puffin only when it is "dressed up" for the breeding season and would hardly recognize it in its plainer winter garb.įratercula means "little brother" or "friar," perhaps a reference to the puffin’s black and white dress. In 1992 it was made the official bird of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
One of the most popular and well-known seabirds in Canada, its colourful features often appear on calendars and posters. The Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica is one of four species of puffins and is the only one that lives on the North Atlantic Ocean.
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