the atlantic puffin

The Atlantic Puffin is one of many birds currently living off the coast of Great Britain. Their common name comes from where they live: the Atlantic Ocean, but also their Latin name ‘Fratercula Artica’ which means North Atlantic Common Puffin. The Atlantic Puffin is a member of the auk family that comprises four breeds, including the Atlantic, Horned, and Tufted Puffins, as well as the Rhinoceros Auklet. These other breeds live in North America and East Asia.

Over the centuries, they have been given nicknames such as ‘Ocean Clown’ for their clown-like walk and ‘Sea Parrot’ for their colorful beaks. Puffins’ beaks are parrot-like in size and blue, yellow, and orange in color. They have a small fold on the face that is connected to the back of the beak. During the summer, his eyes have a small triangle at the top with a line sticking out. Plus, with their black jackets and white background, they look like they’re dressed for dinner. People can mistake puffins for penguins because of their gait, large wings, and orange webbed feet, which leads to their excellent swimming.

Puffins feast on many other shorebirds, for example Razorbill, Guillemot and perhaps Gannets at Sand eels and Herrings, which is their favorite because the chicks can swallow them whole. These breeds of fish live here due to the amount of plankton found near the cliffs. However sadly there has been a recent decline in puffins due to global warming when the seas are getting warmer and the fish cannot withstand these temperatures and are dying out. Puffin feeding techniques consist of sitting on the surface and then diving down, flapping their wings and feet to keep up with the fish, and then catching them. This technique has to be pretty fast because you can only stay underwater for 20-40 seconds. The maximum a puffin can hold a certain number of fish in its beak at one time is about a dozen fish.

The two predators most feared by puffins are the seagull that picks up its victim with its claws or the worst: the black rat that can sneak into the puffin burrow and eat the chick and then take over the burrow. There have been many visits by the black rat before, first recorded on Lundy Island, which is off the North Devon coast. The name Lundy comes from an Old Norse word meaning puffin island. Rats were introduced to the island by mistake and killed all the birds, although as recently as 2008 six burrows were observed to be used for nesting. Another island that was badly affected by black rats was Puffin Island, off the coast of the island of Anglesey. Despite its name, there were no puffins on the island for a long time, as they were accidentally killed when boats were on Puffin Island. Recently, they have been poisoned and hope to cheer them up again.

For these birds, breeding begins and ends in the summer. When both sexes have successfully mated, they dig or find an empty burrow. Once found, both adults begin to build a nest using feathers and twigs: twigs for stabilization and building, feathers for comfort. The female then only lays a single egg which is incubated by both parents for 39-43 days. Finally, when it has hatched, the chick looks like a plump ball that is sooty black and fluffy all over with a small triangular beak and dark eyes. The chick is fed sand eels, then finally, after about 45 days, it will leave the nest and have a life of its own!

I hope this article will entice you about the Atlantic Puffin and enjoy!