Overview
The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), affectionately nicknamed the ‘clown of the sea’ or ‘sea parrot,’ is an iconic pelagic seabird celebrated for its brightly striped triangular bill, monochrome plumage, and comic ashore waddle. Spending the brutal winter months drifting far out on open Atlantic swells, puffins return each spring to colonial turf cliffs to rear a single chick inside a subterranean earthen burrow.
Biology and Physical Characteristics
Adult puffins display crisp black-and-white plumage reminiscent of a tuxedo, paired with bright orange webbed feet. During the spring breeding season, their large, laterally compressed bill develops vibrant bands of orange, yellow, and blue-gray, which shed after breeding into a duller, smaller winter bill. In flight, their short, muscular wings beat at up to 400 strokes per minute, and when diving underwater, they ‘fly’ through the ocean depths down to 200 feet (60 m) to capture agile shoaling fish.
Behavior and Ecology
Atlantic puffins are monogamous breeders that reunite with the same mate year after year at the same island nesting burrow. Using their sharp claws and strong bill, pairs excavate burrows up to three feet deep into grassy cliff soil. The parent birds have a unique palate structure with backward-pointing serrated spines (denticles) that lock captured sandeels against the upper bill, allowing them to carry up to dozens of fish crosswise in their beak simultaneously to feed their chick (puffling).
Conservation and Human Impact
Assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to widespread breeding failures across major colonies in Iceland and Norway, puffins face acute threats from climate change. Warming sea surface temperatures cause shifts in the distribution of cold-water forage fish like sandeels, leading to starvation among nesting chicks. Additional threats include marine plastic pollution and historical predation by introduced mammalian predators on nesting islands.
Interesting Factoid
Thanks to specialized backward-facing spines on the roof of its mouth and a flexible tongue, an Atlantic puffin can hold more than a dozen slippery sandeels crosswise in its bill at once while continuing to catch more underwater!
Last updated: October 2026