Puffin, Arctic Circle

Have you ever seen a puffin? They are the most adorable seabirds, known for their colourful beaks, expressive faces, and cute waddle—hence their endearing nickname, “sea clowns”. Their scientific name, Fratercula arctica, means “brother of the north”, referring to their home in the Northern Hemisphere. This helps distinguish them from penguins living exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Though puffins and penguins may appear similar at first, they are not related and belong to entirely different bird families.

Puffins are part of the auk family, with four species in total, though the Atlantic Puffin is the best known. These birds make their homes along the North Atlantic Ocean and are commonly found breeding on the cliffs and islands of northern Europe, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States (primarily in Maine). While they come ashore during the summer to breed, they spend the rest of the year far out at sea, often bobbing alone on the open water, thanks to the waterproof feathers that keep them warm in the freezing cold water.

The puffin’s most striking feature is its bright beak, which turns a vivid mix of orange-red and yellow during the breeding season to help attract a lifelong mate. This colourful outer layer is shed in winter, revealing a duller greyish tone. The beak is quite distinctive for such a small bird—broad and triangular with a steep curve at the tip.

Along the sides of the beak are deep grooves and ridges that, together with a rough tongue and a special hinge in the jaw, allow puffins to carry multiple fish at once without dropping them. This enables them to line up their catch crosswise while diving for more. Capable of reaching depths of up to 200ft (60m), puffins use their wings like flippers to "fly" underwater and their webbed feet to steer while hunting for herring and sand eels. It's not uncommon for puffins to carry more than 10 fish in their beaks at a time, making feeding their chicks easier and more efficient.

When it comes to nesting, puffins dig burrows in grassy cliff edges, sometimes reusing rabbit holes, and lay just one egg each season. Both parents share the work of incubating the egg and feeding the chick, which is adorably called a “puffling”. After six weeks, the puffling is ready to explore the ocean independently. 

Despite their small size, they’re strong flyers, flapping their wings up to 400 times per minute and reaching speeds of 55mph (88km/h). 

While out at sea, puffins are fairly silent, but once on land, the chatter can get quite noisy, ranging from a low, guttural sound to something somewhat raspy. This vivid description pretty much sums it up: “a cross between a cow’s moo, a creaking door, and a chainsaw starting up”.

These charming seabirds face many challenges due to climate change, overfishing, and pollution, making it increasingly difficult to find food and safe places to nest. As such, conservation efforts are focused on reducing bycatch, protecting breeding habitats, and controlling predators from invasive species. One notable success is the Icelandic puffin population, where conservation initiatives have helped stabilise numbers.