Atlantic Puffin Identification

The Atlantic Puffin is about the size of a pigeon.

It is noticeable for its large and colorful beak, hence its nickname "sea parrot" or "clown of the sea".

The back of the body and wings are black.

The underside of the body is white with darker undersides of the wings.

The top of its head is black, cheeks white, nape and neck black.

Its eye is ringed with red in a dark triangle with a thin black eyebrow extending backward.

Its large beak is triangular and slightly hooked.

Its color is due to the succession of different horny layers: the tip is red, the base is dark blue surrounded by yellow.

In breeding plumage, two small dark excrescences surround its eye: one above and one below, giving it a clownish look. It is sometimes called the "clown of the sea"!

Outside of breeding season, the beak is smaller, the area around the eye is dark gray without excrescences, and its cheeks are grayish. This is referred to as adult non-breeding plumage.

The juvenile resembles the non-breeding adult (gray cheeks, dark gray around the eye without excrescences), but with a much smaller and darker beak.

Its orange webbed feet during the breeding season turn yellow after the breeding season.

The Atlantic Puffin can be heard at breeding sites.

Its call is plaintive and muffled. "arr-ouh"

When standing on land, its round silhouette is recognizable, often standing upright and straight.

In flight, its short and stocky body and large head are noticeable.

Its short wings make it better suited to swimming than flying.

In the air, it must beat its wings rapidly and often stays close to the water's surface.

It is sometimes seen running on water to take off.

Puffins are gregarious: they move and fish in groups throughout the year.

It is sometimes observed with its beak under its wing. At sea, it sleeps like this while floating.

The Atlantic Puffin is very gregarious in summer, sometimes nesting in very large colonies (several tens of thousands in Iceland).

It nests on steep and grassy cliff slopes.

Each pair occupies a burrow that it reuses year after year or digs with its beak and feet. It sometimes uses a puffin or rabbit burrow.

The large and colorful beak is used to attract the female.

Mating occurs on the water.

The female produces one egg per year between June and July.

The egg is laid in a dug burrow.

The Atlantic Puffin is primarily piscivorous (sand eels, herrings, sprats, rocklings…).

It also eats crustaceans and mollusks.

To find its food, it dives from the surface with a wingbeat and tilts its body in a typical manner.

Then, it "flies" underwater using its short, narrow wings with its feet as rudders.

This underwater "flight" can reach speeds of up to 20 km/h.

It swallows its prey underwater except when feeding its chick.

It can store up to 30 small fish at once in its beak.

During dives, its eyes are protected by a transparent eyelid: the nictitating membrane.

The Atlantic Puffin lives in the open sea. It is a pelagic seabird.

From March to April, it leaves the open sea and heads to the coast and breeding sites (islands and continental coastlines). It returns to the open sea in September.

Its range is strictly North Atlantic. Here, in the Faroe Islands.

In Europe, large populations breed in Iceland.

It is found in smaller numbers in Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, and France.

In France, a significant colony breeds in Brittany (in the Sept-Iles reserve).

It can live for about twenty-two years.