About Puffins
The word puffin is thought to be derived from the word ‘puff’ which refers to swollen. And it is the puffin chick that contributes best to this name because of its round, puffed look resulting from its dense cover of down feathers - an adaptation for retaining body heat while the parent is off fishing. Indeed, they resemble little puff balls with beak and feet. Puffins have also been called "clown of the ocean" and "sea parrot" because of their clown-like facial markings and colorful beak (more like that of toucans).
The puffin’s scientific name, Fratercula arctica dates back to the last half of the 1800's. This name means "little brother of the north" in Latin. Little brother alludes to 'little friar' referring to the puffin's black and white plumage which is reminiscent of a friar's robes. A second connotation of little friar may be drawn from the puffin's sometime habit of holding its feet together when taking off, suggestive of hands clasped together in prayer.
Size
Puffins are usually 10 inches tall (18 cm), which is about the height of a quart jug of milk. The puffin weighs about 500 grams, similar to a can of soda.
Diet
Adult puffins mostly eat small fish, such as sand eels, herring, hake and capelin. Puffin diets vary from colony to colony because of the variety of fish around the breeding islands. During winter puffins may also eat crustaceans, but their preferred food is fish. The young puffins are usually fed fish by their parents. Parents carry fish in their bills and either drop them on the burrow floor or pass them to the chick. Parents usually feed the chick several times each day.
Puffins can carry several fish back to their nest at a time. The average catch is around 10 fish per trip but the record in Britain is a whopping 62 fish at once! The puffin’s beak is specialized to hold all these fish. The puffin’s raspy tongue holds fish against spines on the palate, while it opens its beak to catch more fish.
Puffin facts
A puffin can fly 48 to 55 mph (77 to 88 km/hr). The puffin beats its wings rapidly to achieve this speed reaching up to 400 beats a minute. The wings can move so fast that they become a blur, giving a flying puffin the appearance of a black and white football.
A puffin can dive for up to a minute but most dives usually last 20 to 30 seconds. While underwater, the puffin swims by using its wings to push it along under the water almost as if it were flying, while using its feet as a rudder.
During winter, the bills and feet of puffins fade to dull shades of their summer colors. Every spring their beaks and feet turn a colorful orange in preparation for the breeding season. The beaks and feet of puffins become brightly colored and the beak increases in size as the bird matures. The size and color of puffin beaks may serve as badges of experience and help birds assess the ‘quality’ of potential mates.
Puffins often live 20 years or more. The oldest known puffin lived to be 36 years. Maximum age is difficult to determine because while researchers are able to band birds, puffins abrade these bands by nesting among boulders as well as spending the majority of their lives in the open ocean, which causes leg bands to corrode over time. Both these mechanisms cause bands to become too worn to read. Note that Puffins sometimes have TWO bands on their legs. The one with the long string of numbers is issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and that number is unique to that individual bird. But, because the longer numbers are sometimes difficult to read in the field, Project Puffin creates a special "Field Readable Band" which is only used for Maine Coast Projects. This band has fewer letters and numbers, and can be easier to read by Project Puffin staff members observing birds through spotting scopes, and easier to see if the bird is captured on camera.
Puffin Species
Puffins belong to the Alcidae (Auk) family of seabirds.There are 4 species of puffins. They are:
Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin (formerly Common Puffin) lives in the North Atlantic. It is the smallest of the puffins and is readily separated from the similar Horned Puffin by the steel-blue triangle at the base of its beak.
Range: Atlantic Puffins are found exclusively in the North Atlantic Ocean. In North America, they nest from Labrador/Newfoundland to the Northeastern United States. In Europe, they nest south to the Brittany Coast of France, northwards to Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Russia. Most of the world’s puffins are found in Iceland, where sixty percent of the population breeds.
rHorned Puffin
The Horned Puffin looks similar to the Atlantic Puffin however it is easily distinguished by its mostly yellow bill with orange tip (missing blue/gray section towards base of bill). The Horned Puffin receives its name from the horny projections that extend above its eyes.
Range: Breeds from northwestern Alaska south along coast to Alaska-British Columbia border. Winters far at sea south to waters off California. Irregular spring records from Washington, Oregon, and California. Also on northern coast of Asia.
Tufted Puffin
The Tufted Puffin is the largest puffin and is characterized by long, straw-colored feathers that extend back from its crown during the mating season.
Range: This species of puffin breeds from northwestern Alaska south along coast to central California, and winters at sea throughout the North Pacific. Also, on northern coast of Asia.
Rhinoceros Auklet
Although this Puffin differs noticeably in outward appearance from the other three species of puffin (which accounts for its misnaming), this sooty-brown bird is anatomically still a puffin. During the breeding season a pale knob projects upward from the base of the upper mandible giving a Rhinoceros-like appearance to its otherwise more narrow and shallower bill. This puffin usually comes to land at night.
Range: Breeds sparingly on Aleutian Islands and more abundantly from Alaska Peninsula south along coast to central California, where its populations are increasing. Probably winters in inshore and offshore waters from breeding colonies south to southern California. Also on northern coast of Asia.