A small, round-bodied auk with a large head, the common puffin has a spectacular striped bill, which it uses to catch food and in display. In summer, the puffin’s bill is colorful, the upper parts of the body and collar are black and the underparts white. In winter, the face is grayish and the bill smaller and duller.

Puffins are sometimes referred to as the “sea parrots.” Puffins do not sit on their eggs. They move up against the egg and cover it with their wing and side. Under water, puffins use their wings to swim while guiding themselves with their feet. Atlantic puffins weigh about one pound and stand one foot tall. The Atlantic Puffin is one of the most popular and well known seabirds in Canada. Its colourful features are often displayed on calendars and posters. In 1992 it was made the official bird of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most people only know a puffin when it is “dressed up” for the breeding season and would hardly recognize it in its plainer winter garb.

The Common or Atlantic Puffin ( Fratercula artica ) is a rather small sea bird that spends most of its time at sea in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. The only time it comes ashore is to breed and raise a chick. These are the only puffins that occur in the Atlantic. There are others that occur in the Pacific.

The Atlantic Puffin is the most popular and maybe the best-known member of the auk family, especially to European, birders and non-birders alike. It is remarkable for its coloured, parrot-like beak, which gives it such a comical and appealing appearance.

THEY ARRIVE ON LAND from the great unknown vastness of the North Atlantic, where they live from mid-August to mid-April. Perhaps clued in by the changing diurnal cycle, or even by the barely perceptible rise in the temperatures of wind and water, thousands upon thousands of Atlantic puffins–one of four puffin species, all members of the auk family–fly, paddle and float to remote seaside colonies on both sides of the ocean.

In the spring, puffins come ashore in groups of hundreds to court and breed during the summer. They form colonies on islands like the Outer Hebrides in the North of Scotland. This island in the Outer Hebrides is covered in puffins who have just flown in after spending the winter floating on the ocean and diving for fish. Puffins mate for life, splitting up during the winter and meeting each spring, returning to the same burrows.

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