SPECIES
Atlantic puffin
Fratercula arctica Linnaeus, 1758
It flies underwater, flapping its wings and steering with its feet, down to 40 metres.
How big is an Atlantic puffin?
47–63 cm
How long does an Atlantic puffin live?
over 20 years (record 36)
A burrow, one egg, two parents
Puffins dig burrows in the ground or between rocks and line a nest with feathers and grass. They usually lay a single egg, incubated for about 40 days, and both parents care for the chick.
They eat mostly small fish such as sand eels, herring, hake and capelin; a typical trip brings back about ten fish.
North Atlantic cliffs, then the open sea
It breeds from Brittany, Ireland and the UK to Iceland, Greenland, Norway, the Faroe Islands and northern Russia; most of the world's puffins are found in Iceland. Outside the breeding season it ranges across the North Atlantic.
Fewer fish, warmer seas
In Europe the population is estimated to have decreased by 68% over the past 50 years.
Named threats include climate change, overfishing, pollution and oil spills, invasive predators, offshore energy construction, bycatch and hunting.
People counting what the chicks are fed
RSPB's Project Puffin asked the public for photos of puffins carrying food, to test whether food shortage is driving the declines; volunteers sent 3,497 photos from 59 UK colonies.
Sources
Records of where it has been seen come live from GBIF; observed interactions from GloBI. Draft — not yet reviewed by a person.