Puffin

Puffin, common name for the three species of birds of a genus of the auk family, characterized by large, triangular, laterally flattened bills, of which the outer layers are shed after the breeding season. The Atlantic puffin is black above and white below, with the bill patterned in red, yellow, and bluish-grey. It ranges from North America to Britain and Scandinavia. Its bill has internal barbs or hooks, enabling it to carry up to ten small fish at a time. The horned puffin, of the northern Pacific coast, is similar in body colour but with a yellow, red-tipped bill. Also from the Pacific but breeding south to California is the tufted puffin, with an all-black body, white face, and long, straw-coloured plumes that curve behind the eye.

Puffins are good swimmers and divers and feed mainly on fish. During the breeding season they form large colonies on rocky coasts and islands. The female lays one whitish egg, usually in a rock crevice or burrow. After hatching, the young stay in the nest for 7 to 8 weeks, during which time they are feed by the parents.

Scientific classification: Puffins make up the genus Fratercula of the family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes. The Atlantic puffin is classified as Fratercula arctica, the horned puffin as Fratercula corniculata, and the tufted puffin as Lunda cirrhata.