Atlantic Puffin

Identification

In summer the Atlantic Puffin is unmistakable: a stocky black-and-white auk with a parrot-like bill banded in orange, yellow and blue-grey, a pale grey face patch, and a black line running back from the eye. What many people do not realise is that the bright bill is temporary — after breeding the outer plates are shed, leaving a smaller, duller bill and a darker face through winter. Juveniles resemble winter adults but have a thinner bill. On land puffins waddle upright and look comical; on the water they sit low and buoyant, and in flight their small, fast-whirring wings blur like a bee's.

Puffins are pursuit divers. They 'fly' underwater with rapid wingbeats, steering with their feet, and can stay down for around thirty seconds while chasing sand eels and small fish. The bill's serrated edges and a spiny tongue let a bird hold a row of fish crosswise while still catching more — a ten-fish beakful is not unusual. They nest in burrows dug into grassy cliff tops, often taking over an old rabbit hole, and raise a single chick, the 'puffling', on fish brought back at dusk to avoid gulls. Puffins are long-lived and slow to mature, not breeding until about five years old.

Puffin colonies are a late-spring spectacle: the birds arrive from the open Atlantic in April and have mostly gone by mid-August, so timing a visit matters. Britain and Ireland hold some of the largest colonies — Skomer, the Farne Islands, Lunga — while Iceland and Norway host millions of pairs. Afternoon and evening are best, when birds raft offshore before coming in to their burrows. Watch from the path above the colony: puffins tolerate quiet observers but panic at close approach, and a flushed bird may drop the fish it was carrying.

The bill, and why it changes

The bright, banded bill is a breeding-season ornament. After the chicks have gone, the outer plates are shed and the bill becomes smaller and duller, while the face loses its pale grey patch and the eye ornamentation. Winter birds seen at sea therefore look like different animals, and the change is the single most useful thing to understand about the species.

Even in summer, the bill changes colour as the season progresses, and the grooves on the bill are often used as an approximate indication of age: older birds generally have more of them. On land the bird stands upright with its feet set well back, giving the comic waddling gait that makes it so popular with visitors.

Diving and the fish carry

Puffins are pursuit divers that 'fly' underwater with rapid wingbeats, steering with their feet. They can stay submerged for around half a minute and typically chase small schooling fish such as sand eels and capelin, taking them one at a time near the surface on the way up.

The ability to hold a whole row of fish comes from the bill's serrated edges and a spiny tongue, which together let a bird pin each fish crosswise while still catching more. Beakfuls of several fish are normal, and the size of the catch is used by researchers as an indication of how good a season it has been for the colony.

Confusion risks

In summer there is nothing in the North Atlantic quite like it: black above, white below, orange legs, a black collar and that banded bill. The confusion risk is in winter and at sea, when the small bill and dark face make a distant bird hard to separate from a Razorbill.

Razorbills are the usual comparison. They have a blunt, thick bill with a vertical white line near the tip, no black collar, and a more streamlined look in flight. Guillemots are longer, thinner and browner, with a pointed bill and a dark brown, not black, upperpart. If you can see the bill shape, you have the answer.

Where and when to look

Colonies are a late-spring and summer spectacle: the birds arrive from the open Atlantic around April and are mostly gone by mid-August, so timing a visit matters more than anything else. Puffins usually come ashore in the evening or early morning to avoid gulls, and the best views are from the path above the colony as birds raft offshore and then fly in.

Britain and Ireland hold some of the largest colonies, and Iceland and Norway hold millions of pairs, with smaller numbers elsewhere in the North Atlantic. Afternoon and evening are the productive hours. In winter, birds are scattered far out at sea and are seen mainly by seawatchers after gales.

Fieldcraft and conservation notes

A puffin colony is fragile in a way that is not obvious from the outside, because the birds nest in burrows. Walking off the path can collapse a burrow and crush the chick inside, and a bird kept from its burrow may drop the fish it has spent hours catching. Stay on marked paths, keep children and dogs close, and never put a hand into a burrow.

The pressures facing the species are mostly at sea: changes in the availability of sand eels and other small fish, linked to warming water and to fishing, have caused poor breeding seasons across parts of the range. Ground predators such as rats and mink can devastate a colony once they reach it, which is why biosecurity on islands matters, and small boats landing on colonies should follow local guidance.