![]() ![]() Just like other auks, puffins consume both fish and zooplankton. ![]() The biggest single puffin colony in the world is located in the Westman Isles of Iceland. Iceland serves as the home for the majority of the Atlantic puffins.Puffins held captive are said to breed as early as three years old.After the breeding season, puffins winter at sea, mostly away from coasts and often reaching south of the breeding range.Afterward, the chicks spend their first few years at sea and return to breed five years later. The incubating parent grasps the egg against its brood patch with the help of its wings. Females lay one egg, and both parents incubate and feed their chick, which is called a “puffling”. Puffins establish long-term pair relationships.Atlantic puffins sometimes breed in rabbit burrows.The eggs of the Atlantic puffin are creamy white but usually, the egg is tinged lilac. The Atlantic puffin burrow is outlined with materials such as grass, leaves, and feathers but is oftentimes unlined. Meanwhile, nesting sites of horned puffins are found in rock crevices on cliffs. The nesting substrate of the tufted and Atlantic puffins is composed of soft soil, into which these tunnels are dug. Horned puffin burrows, on the other hand, are typically 1m deep, capped off by a chamber, while the tunnel leading to a tufted puffin burrow may reach 2.75 m long. Adult horned puffins take turns in building their nest. The male Atlantic puffin creates the nest and displays strong nest-site fidelity. Puffins breed in colonies on coasts and islands other present or former island breeding locations are named Puffin Island.Its beak is large and tends to be colorful during the breeding season, which sheds afterward, revealing a smaller and duller true bill under it. Its head has a black cap, the face is almost entirely white, and the feet are orange-red. A puffin is a stocky, short-winged, and short-tailed seabird, with black feathers on its upperparts and white or brownish-grey underparts. ![]() They fly a few meters above the water, usually 10 m as compared with the 1.6 m of other auks. Despite being vocal at their breeding colonies, puffins are normally silent at sea.The rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) has sometimes been considered a species of the genus Fratercula.Also called the crested puffin, the tufted puffin is a medium-sized pelagic bird of the North Pacific Ocean, easily distinguished for its thick red bill and yellow tufts.Its closest relative is the Atlantic puffin, and their only difference is the presence of a “horn” of black skin found above the eye which is visible in adult horned puffins. The horned puffin is an auk that lives in the North Pacific Ocean, including the coasts of Alaska, Siberia, and British Columbia.Despite being widespread, these seabirds have declined in number, making them among the vulnerable species by the IUCN. Nicknamed “sea parrots” and sometimes “clowns of the sea”, Atlantic puffins sport black and white plumage and a large parrot-like beak, endemic to the Atlantic Ocean and breeds in Quebec, Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and the Faroe Islands, and as far as south as Maine in the west and France in the east.The genus comprises three species: (1) Atlantic puffin ( Fratercula arctica), (2) horned puffin ( Fratercula corniculata), and (3) tufted puffin ( Fratercula cirrhata). ![]()
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