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ATLANTIC PUFFIN
  Bird Call
| Characteristics: |
26 to 29 cm long. Black back, white underparts and bright orange webbed feet. The large, triangular, laterally flattened bill is highly characteristic. The bill is striped red-blue-yellow during the breeding season giving the birds a somewhat comical appearance. Fast, swift flight with rapid wing-beats. Sociable birds that forage together in the water and undertake display flights together.
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| Call: |
Very rarely heard. Deep growling arr ar-ar-ar sounds, audible only at extremely close range. The growling can also be heard from the breeding burrows in the ground.
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| Habitat: |
Like many other seabird species, Puffins spend most of the year out at sea, returning to traditional breeding islands and coastal cliff-tops only during the breeding season, April to August. |
| Distribution: |
Scandinavia, Spitsbergen, Northern France, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, the East Coast of the United States and Nowaja Semlja. |
| Biology: |
Feeds mostly on fish, especially sandeels but also on crustaceans, worms and molluscs. When diving, the Puffin thrusts with its wings and guides with its feet. Cave breeders, makes its own burrow in the ground or uses existing ones. Lays 1 whitish egg that is finely speckled with light brown. The egg is laid on the bare earth or is sometimes padded with nesting material. Eggs are mostly laid from the beginning of April; the majority of juveniles leave the breeding place already able to fly.
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