The beak fades to a drab gray during the winter and blooms with. They are distinguished by their large, brightly coloured, triangular beaks. Atlantic puffins have penguin-like coloring but they sport a colorful beak that has led some to dub them the sea parrot. They may use visual reference points, smells, sounds, the Earth's magnetic fields-or perhaps even the stars. puffin, also called bottlenose, or sea parrot, any of three species of diving birds that belong to the auk family, Alcidae (order Charadriiformes). It is unclear how these birds navigate back to their home grounds. At its colonies, the bird may fly back to its nest carrying a dozen small fish lined up in its bill, making us wonder how the puffin holds onto ten slippery. Puffin couples often reunite at the same burrow site each year. When a chick hatches, its parents take turns feeding it by carrying small fish back to the nest in their relatively spacious bills. Females lay a single egg, and both parents take turns incubating it. The birds often select precipitous, rocky cliff tops to build their nests, which they line with feathers or grass. Iceland is the breeding home of perhaps 60 percent of the world's Atlantic puffins. Puffin Colonies and BreedingĪtlantic puffins land on North Atlantic seacoasts and islands to form breeding colonies each spring and summer. By flapping their wings up to 400 times per minute they can reach speeds of 55 miles an hour. In the air, puffins are surprisingly fleet flyers. Puffins typically hunt small fish like herring or sand eels. They steer with rudderlike webbed feet and can dive to depths of 200 feet, though they usually stay underwater for only 20 or 30 seconds. They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to stroke underwater with a flying motion. The largest documented colony is made up of Atlantic Puffins, located in the Westmann Isles, part of Iceland. Puffins are very social birds, forming immense colonies together. These birds live most of their lives at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. What is the puffin’s social structure A group of puffins is known by a range of names a colony, a puffinry, a circus, a burrow, a gathering, or an improbability. ![]() Atlantic puffins have penguin-like coloring but they sport a colorful beak that has led some to dub them the “sea parrot.” The beak fades to a drab gray during the winter and blooms with color again in the spring-suggesting that it may be attractive to potential mates.
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