When most of us in the UK imagine a puffin, we think of the Atlantic Puffin, but there are actually several species, each with their own quirky and majestic looks. Our Atlantic puffin is the smallest and looks fairly similar to the Horned Puffin, which breeds along the Alaska-British Columbia border. The easiest way to tell the two apart is by their beaks. The Atlantic Puffin’s beak is orangey-red with a blue or grey triangle and white stripes, while the Horned Puffin’s beak is mostly a yellowy-ivory colour with an orange tip.
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A Horned Puffin
The easiest way to tell puffins apart is by their beaks. The Atlantic Puffin’s beak is orangey-red with a blue or grey triangle and white stripes, while the Horned Puffin’s beak is mostly a yellowy-ivory colour with an orange tip.
The Tufted Puffin swaps the often forlorn, sad look of the Atlantic Puffin for a disgruntled, wizened look. Its eyes aren’t ringed with black, and its plumage is less white on its face, so it is a darker bird with a shock of bold, yellow feathers down its neck.
8. Petit puffins
Puffins are a lot smaller than most people think. Atlantic Puffins are the smallest of the puffin family at about 10 inches tall, and they weigh around 500 grams.
9. Smelling their way through the seas
How birds like puffins navigate over such huge distances has long been a mystery, but recent studies suggest that birds could create a map in their minds using smell.
Researchers from the universities of Oxford, Barcelona and Pisa temporarily took away a seabird’s sense of smell and found that birds could manage small trips to catch food and return to land but when it came to migration their route was uncharacteristically disorientated. So it seems smell could be the secret to finding their way when they are unable to navigate by sight.
10. Puffins present a picture of a changing world
Seabirds such as puffins indicate what’s happening beneath the surface of the world’s waters. Climate change has been linked to changing sea temperatures which, coupled with pressures from fisheries, is having a significant impact on distribution and size of fish. In Britain, it’s thought that the decline in puffin numbers in recent years, especially on the eastern coast of Scotland, is linked to food shortages in the North Sea. Some colony declines are linked to lack of food availability to breeding birds but it is conditions in the wintering areas that are now believed to be most critical for long-term health of puffin populations.
11. Puffballs and pastors – how the puffin got its name
The word puffin is thought to come from, quite simply, the word “puff” and when you see a swollen-looking puffling it’s easy to see why. They have a fluffy ball of dense down feathers adapted to keep them warm while their parents are off fishing.
The scientific name is less literal, though. Fratercula arctica was coined in the late 1800s and means "little brother of the north" in Latin. It’s said to be because the black and white feathers look like the robes of a religious friar. Taking this even further, some say that when puffins take off to fly they hold their feet together in such a way it looks like hands clasped together in prayer.
