puffin

puffin, any of three species of diving birds that belong to the auk family, Alcidae (order Charadriiformes). They are distinguished by their large, brightly coloured, triangular beaks. Puffins nest in large colonies on seaside and island cliffs, usually laying only one egg, in a burrow dug one or two metres (three to six feet) deep. Hatched in about six weeks, the young bird fattens on fish, supplied by both parents. After about six weeks of feeding, the parent birds desert their young, which then waits alone until it becomes thin and its flightfeathers have grown, and then it flies out to sea by itself. Puffins eat a variety of marine organisms. They are able to catch as many as 10 small fish in succession and to carry them crosswise in the bill to the nest.

The common, or Atlantic, puffin (Fratercula arctica) occurs on Atlantic coasts from the Arctic south to Brittany and Maine. It is about 30 cm (12 inches) long, black above, white below, with gray face plumage, red-orange feet, a blue-gray, yellow, and red bill, and horny plates of skin around the beak and on the eyelids. The horned puffin (F. corniculata) is a Pacific relative of the Atlantic species. Of more southerly Pacific distribution is the tufted puffin (Lunda cirrhata), which is black with red legs and bill, a white face, and straw-coloured plumes curving backward from behind the eyes.