The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin, are found in the northeastern Pacific. The Atlantic puffin breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and the British Isles in the east. The Atlantic puffin has a large population and a wide range. It is not considered to be endangered although there may be local declines in numbers. On land, it has the typical upright stance of an auk. At sea, they swim on the surface and feed mainly on small fish, which they catch by diving underwater, using their wings for propulsion.
The Atlantic puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage. It molts while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-colored facial characteristics are lost. The external appearance of the adult male and female are identical except that the male is usually slightly larger.
The Atlantic puffin spends the autumn and winter in the open ocean of the cold northern seas and returns to coastal areas at the start of the breeding season in late spring. It nests in cliff top colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. The chick mostly feeds on whole fish and grows rapidly. After about six weeks it is fully fledged and makes its way at night to the sea. It swims away from the shore and does not return to land for several years.
Colonies are mostly on islands where there are no terrestrial predators but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. Sometimes a bird such as an Arctic skua will harass a puffin arriving with a beakful of fish, causing it to drop its catch. The striking appearance, large colorful bill, waddling gait and behavior of this bird have given rise to nicknames such as "clown of the sea" and "sea parrot". It is the official bird symbol for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The scientific name Fratercula comes from the Medieval Latin fratercula, friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The specific name arctica refers to the northerly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek άρκτος ("arktos"), the bear, referring to the northerly constellation, the Great Bear. The vernacular name puffin – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), which (in 1652) was known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English pophyn or poffin) used for the cured carcasses. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name at a much later stage, possibly because of its similar nesting habits, and it was formally applied to Fratercula arctica by Pennant in 1768. While the species is also known as the common puffin, "Atlantic Puffin" is the English name recommended by the International Ornithological Congress.
Adult puffins have boldly colored beaks in the breeding season. The Atlantic puffin is sturdily built with a thick-set neck and short wings and tail. It is 11 to 12 inches in length from the tip of its stout bill to its blunt-ended tail. Its wingspan is 19 to 25 inches and on land it stands about 8 inches high. The characteristic bright orange bill plates and other facial characteristics develop in the spring. At the close of the breeding season, these special coatings and appendages are shed in a partial molt. This makes the beak appear less broad, the tip less bright and the base darker grey. The eye ornaments are shed and the eyes appear round. At the same time, the feathers of the head and neck are replaced and the face becomes darker. This winter plumage is seldom seen by humans because when they have left their chicks, the birds head out to sea and do not return to land until the next breeding season.
The Atlantic puffin is a bird of the colder waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. It breeds on the coasts of north west Europe, the Arctic fringes and eastern North America. The largest colony is on Iceland where 60% of the world's Atlantic puffins nest. The largest colony in the western Atlantic (estimated at more than 260,000 pairs) can be found at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, south of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Other major breeding locations include the north and west coasts of Norway, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland and Orkney islands, the west coast of Greenland and the coasts of Newfoundland.
Atlantic puffins lead solitary existences when out at sea and this part of their life has been little studied as the task of finding even one bird on the vast ocean is formidable. When at sea, the Atlantic puffin bobs about like a cork, propelling itself through the water with powerful thrusts of its feet and keeping itself turned into the wind, even when resting and apparently asleep. It spends much time each day preening to keep its plumage in order and spread oil from the preen gland. Its downy under-plumage remains dry and provides thermal insulation. In common with other seabirds, its upper surface is black and underside white. This provides camouflage, with aerial predators unable to observe the bird against the dark watery background and underwater attackers failing to notice it as it blends in with the bright sky above the waves.
When it takes off, the Atlantic puffin patters across the surface of the water while vigorously flapping its wings, before launching itself into the air. The size of the wing is a compromise between its uses above and below water and its surface area is small relative to the bird's weight. To maintain flight, the wings need to beat very rapidly at a rate of several times each second. The bird's flight is direct and low over the surface of the water and it can travel at 50 mi per hour. Landing is awkward; it either crashes into a wave crest or, in calmer water, does a belly flop. While at sea, the Atlantic puffin has its annual molt.
The Atlantic puffin diet consists almost entirely of fish, though examination of its stomach contents shows that it occasionally eats shrimps, other crustaceans, molluscs and polychaete worms, especially in more coastal waters.
When fishing, it swims underwater using its semi-extended wings as paddles to "fly" through the water and its feet as a rudder. It swims fast and can reach considerable depths and stay submerged for up to a minute. It can eat shallow-bodied fish as long as 7 inches but its prey is commonly smaller fish. It has been estimated that an adult bird needs to eat about forty of these per day—sand eels, herring, sprats and capelin being the most often consumed. It fishes by sight and can swallow small fish while submerged, but larger specimens are brought to the surface. It can catch several small fish in one dive, holding the first ones in place in its beak with its muscular, grooved tongue while it catches others. The two mandibles are hinged in such a way that they can be held parallel to hold a row of fish in place and these are also retained by inward-facing serrations on the edges of the beak. It copes with the excess salt that it swallows partly through its kidneys and partly by excretion through specialized salt glands in its nostrils.
The Atlantic puffin is sexually mature at the age of four to five years. The birds are colonial nesters, excavating burrows on grassy cliff tops or reusing existing holes, and may also nest in crevices and amongst rocks and scree on occasion. It is in competition with other birds and animals for burrows. It can excavate its own hole or move into a pre-existing system dug by a rabbit and has been known to peck and drive off the original occupant.
Aerial predators of the Atlantic puffin include the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), the great skua (Stercorarius skua), and similar-sized species, which can catch a bird in flight, or attack one that is unable to escape fast enough on the ground. On detecting danger, puffins take off and fly down to the safety of the sea or retreat into their burrows, but if caught they defend themselves vigorously with beak and sharp claws. When the puffins are wheeling round beside the cliffs it becomes very difficult for a predator to concentrate on a single bird while any individual isolated on the ground is at greater risk. Smaller gull species like the herring gull (L. argentatus) and the lesser black-backed gull are hardly able to bring down a healthy adult puffin. They stride through the colony taking any eggs that have rolled towards burrow entrances or recently hatched chicks that have ventured too far towards the daylight. They will also steal fish from puffins returning to feed their young. Where it nests on the tundra in the far north, the Arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) is a terrestrial predator, but at lower latitudes it is a specialised kleptoparasite, concentrating on auks and other seabirds. It harasses puffins while they are airborne forcing them to drop their catch which it then snatches up.
Breeding colonies of Atlantic puffins provide an interesting spectacle for both bird watchers and tourists. For example, four thousand puffins nest each year on islands off the coast of Maine and visitors can view them from tour boats which operate during the summer months. There is a Project Puffin Visitor Centre in Rockland providing information on the birds and their lives, and on the other conservation projects being undertaken by the National Audubon Society who run the centre.[69] Similar tours operate in Iceland, the Hebrides, and Newfoundland.
Puffins have been hunted by man since time immemorial. Coastal communities and island dwellers with few natural resources at their disposal, made good use of the seafoods that they found on their cliffs and shores. Puffins were caught and eaten fresh, salted in brine or smoked and dried. Their feathers were used in bedding and their eggs were eaten, but not to the same extent as those of some other seabirds, being more difficult to extract from the nest. In most countries, Atlantic puffins are now protected by legislation, and in the countries where hunting is still permitted, strict laws prevent over-exploitation. They are still caught and eaten in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but there have been calls for an outright ban on hunting them in Iceland because of concern over the dwindling number of birds successfully raising chicks.
The publisher of paperbacks, Penguin Books, introduced a range of books for children under the Puffin Books brand in 1939. At first these were non-fiction titles but these were soon followed by a fiction list of well-known authors. The demand was so great that Puffin Book Clubs were introduced in schools to encourage reading, and a children's magazine Puffin Post was established. There is a tradition on the Icelandic island of Heimaey for the children to rescue young puffins, a fact recorded in Bruce McMillan's photo-illustrated children's book Nights of the Pufflings (1995). The fledglings emerge from the nest and try to make their way to the sea but sometimes get confused, perhaps by the street lighting, ending up by landing in the village. The children collect them and liberate them to the safety of the sea.