The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a small and tough seabird and the only puffin species native to the Atlantic Ocean. It is thought to breed in Greenland, North Atlantic islands, Norway, and Newfoundland. Part of the bill and the legs are completely orange while the rest of plumage is greyish black to white in color.
Types of Puffins
Depending on which expert you ask, there are three or four puffin species. All puffin species are types of auks or alcids. The Atlantic or common puffin (Fratercula arctica) is the only species native to the North Atlantic. The tufted or crested puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) and the horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata) live in the North Pacific. The rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) is definitely an auk and only sometimes considered to be a type of puffin. Like the tufted and horned puffin, it ranges across the North Pacific.
Life History and Reproduction
Little is known about the general breeding biology of the Atlantic puffin in Svalbard. The single white egg (that occasionally has pale speckles) is incubated by both sexes for about six weeks.
The nestling, which has a black downy plumage with a white belly, remains in the nest until it is fully fledged and independent. It is fed mostly on fish, but also eats some crustaceans and pelagic pteropods. The fledging period varies from 5�10 weeks depending on the food supply.
The Alantic puffin is sexually mature when it is three or four years old, but the age at the first breeding is usually between five to eight years. Adult survival is high, with most estimates of survivorship in the range of 90�95 %. Thus, many birds reach a considerable age (over 40 years).
Behavior
Atlantic Puffins spend most of their life on the open ocean, coming ashore only to breed. On land they waddle like a penguin, teetering slightly from side to side. They "fly" underwater using their wings for propulsion and their feet as a rudder. They can dive to depths of around 200 feet, but they typically feed in shallower waters.
During the breeding season, they forage in small groups of up to around 7; in the winter they are less social often foraging singly or with another individual. At the breeding colonies they are social birds, often placing their nesting burrows within a couple of body lengths of each other. Birds arriving to the colony often crouch in a horizontal position with one foot in front of the other as if bowing to be accepted to the group. They also walk around the colony in a horizontal position to signal nonaggression. Atlantic Puffins form monogamous bonds and often return to the same burrow with the same mate in subsequent years.
To attract a female, males flick their heads and grunt like a pig near a nesting burrow. Once paired, they maintain their bond by rubbing their bills together. Individuals often shake their head side to side or stomp their feet to proclaim burrow ownership.
Intruding males that get too close to the nesting burrow are met with ruffled feathers and an open bill. Occasionally a fight ensues with clawing and grappling. Nonbreeders at the colony often form flocks and spend hours flying in wide circular or figure-8 paths over the colony cliffs, a behavior called wheeling flight.
During the breeding season, they forage in small groups of up to around 7; in the winter they are less social often foraging singly or with another individual. At the breeding colonies they are social birds, often placing their nesting burrows within a couple of body lengths of each other. Birds arriving to the colony often crouch in a horizontal position with one foot in front of the other as if bowing to be accepted to the group. They also walk around the colony in a horizontal position to signal nonaggression. Atlantic Puffins form monogamous bonds and often return to the same burrow with the same mate in subsequent years.
To attract a female, males flick their heads and grunt like a pig near a nesting burrow. Once paired, they maintain their bond by rubbing their bills together. Individuals often shake their head side to side or stomp their feet to proclaim burrow ownership.
Intruding males that get too close to the nesting burrow are met with ruffled feathers and an open bill. Occasionally a fight ensues with clawing and grappling. Nonbreeders at the colony often form flocks and spend hours flying in wide circular or figure-8 paths over the colony cliffs, a behavior called wheeling flight.
Habitat
Atlantic Puffin is an exclusive marine bird. It breeds on coastal grassy slopes, but also on sea cliffs, adjacent boulders and scree-covered slopes. During winter, it ranges in offshore and pelagic habitats, mainly on deep, icy water. It is rarely seen on land, except for breeding.
Range
Atlantic Puffin lives in Northern Atlantic and Arctic, including Greenland, N Canada, Gulf of St Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Iceland, N Scandinavia, N Russia, Ireland and NW French coasts.
Diet
Atlantic Puffins feed mostly on small fish such as herring and in particular sand-eel, which is one of the most important food sources for many of the world's sea birds. Because of their specially adapted beak, puffins are able to go on long fishing trips, storing their previous catch in a neat row in their beak.
Atlantic Puffins use their tongues to hold the fish against spines in their palate, leaving their beaks free to open and catch more fish. This makes each trip much more productive than it would be if they had to ferry prey back to the burrow each time. Additional components of their diet are crustaceans and mollusks.
A puffin can sometimes have a dozen or more fish in its beak at once. Atlantic Puffins catch their prey by flying underwater, diving for around 20-40 seconds at a time, using their wings to swim powerfully down and their webbed feet to point them in the right direction.
Breeding
It takes four to five years before a puffin is mature enough to breed. Most puffins choose to nest on grassy slopes in burrows 50 to 200 cm long, which they dig with their bills and the sharp claws on their feet. Some birds nest in cracks under boulders or in crevices on cliff faces, especially in arctic colonies where there is little soil or where the soil remains frozen for much of the summer.
After cleaning out their burrows, many puffins line their nest chamber with grass, twigs, and feathers. The slightly enlarged nest chamber where the egg is laid is usually placed at the end of the burrow.
After cleaning out their burrows, many puffins line their nest chamber with grass, twigs, and feathers. The slightly enlarged nest chamber where the egg is laid is usually placed at the end of the burrow.
Courtship occurs mostly on the water, where males flick their heads back, puff up their chests, and flutter their wings to attract females. Billing is one of the most obvious and endearing behaviours to be seen on a puffin colony. A billing pair face each other and repeatedly tap their bills together by rapidly swinging their heads side to side. This is usually a pair-bonding behaviour between mates, but birds will sometimes bill with neighbours as well.
After a period of courtship and mating, the female puffin lays a single egg that is about 14 percent of her weight. The egg is whitish at first with faint blotches, but quickly becomes stained brown with dirt and mud. Both mates take turns incubating the egg, which takes about six weeks to hatch.
A newly hatched chick is covered with soft down, grey-black on the back and head and white on the belly, and weighs about 40 g. It has to be brooded, or kept warm, by a parent for the first week until it can maintain its own body temperature. Then it is left alone most of the time in the safety of the burrow while both parents come and go, bringing it food.
The chick grows rapidly if food is abundant. In four or five weeks it reaches a peak weight of 250 to 350 g and has replaced its downy coat with body and flight feathers. Chicks normally fledge, or complete the process of growing flight feathers and leave the nest, when they are about 40 days old, but the process can take as long as 80 days if food is scarce. Most chicks fledge under the cover of night and are at sea, far from the colony, by morning. Many chicks die if food is very scarce. Breeding success varies greatly between years and even between colonies, but is usually about 60 to 90 percent.
Interesting Facts
- Body of Atlantic puffin is covered with black and white plumage. In the past, feathers of Atlantic puffins were used for decoration of hats.
- Atlantic puffins have very large and colorful beaks (combination of red, yellow and blue colors). Because of their beaks, Atlantic puffins are also known as "sea parrots" or "clowns of the sea".
- Color of the beak changes seasonally. It is pale during the winter and more colorful during the spring, when mating season starts. Birds become more attractive to the opposite sex when their beaks are brightly colored.
- Atlantic puffin is an excellent swimmer. Its webbed feet and strong wings allow fast and precise movement through the water. It can dive 200 feet deep and remain submerged for up to one minute.
- Atlantic puffin is also very fast flyer. It can reach the speed of 55 miles per hour by flapping its wings 400 times per minute.
- Female lays one egg. Incubation period lasts 42 days. Both parents take care of the chick.
- Main predators of Atlantic puffins are black-billed gull and herring gull.
- Atlantic puffins spend majority of their lifetime on the sea. They come to the coast only once per year to reproduce.
- Mating season takes place from April to August. During this period, large colonies of Atlantic puffins gather in their home grounds.
- Atlantic puffins mate for life. They build burrow in the rocky cliffs or on the solid ground between rocks. Burrows are located 3 feet underground.
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