“And today we’re talking about a tiny creature that looks like a penguin but isn’t. More on that later.”
A bird with a funny name sits upon a dock post of a frigid Atlantic wharf, waiting for friends to arrive for the busy mating season. With a beak the color of sunset, these seabirds squawk greetings to pals arriving from the solitary hunting season. But some new faces on Maine shores have strange customs…but sometimes it’s best to join in to fit in–in life death and taxonomy.
Description of the Atlantic Puffin
- It’s a stocky little penguin knockoff crossed with a duck and a little bit of parrot thrown in there for good measure.
- Glossy waterproof black feathers on the back, wings, and crown, contrasting with crisp white underbelly and face
- Short neck and light grey cheek patches that give it a side-eye, but it also has these black lines coming off the tops of its eyes that make it look perpetually concerned. Resting concerned face. Like it’s saying “Aww… what’s wrong honey?”
- Massive, triangular bill that’s a riot of colors in breeding season—orange base, yellow ridges, blue tips. Has a tropical aura that doesn’t really fit on the freezing, windswept islands of the arctic.
- Bright orange legs and webbed feet built for paddling like flippers, plus a stubby tail that can act as a rudder underwater.
- Relative to its cousins, the auk, another penguin wannabe, it’s the mid-sized showboat—not as chunky as a murre, not as sleek as a guillemot (gill-a-mott). I honestly didn’t realize how many black and white seabirds there were that I would just assume was a penguin at a distance.
- And you know what happens when you assume right?…. That’s right you end up misidentifying palearctic waterfowl
Measure Up
Body length (from bill tip to tail): Typically 28–30 cm (11–12 inches), though some sources range up to 31–34 cm.
• Standing height: About 20–25 cm (8–10 inches).
• Wingspan: 47–63 cm (19–25 inches).
• Weight: 300–550 grams (about 10–19 ounces), roughly the weight of a can of soda.
Length of the Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin has a body length of 12 inches (30.5 cm). How many objects fit into the puffin’s length (if the object is shorter) or how many puffins fit into the object’s length (if the object is longer)?
a) The length of a traditional Icelandic háfur net pole
A háfur, the long pole with a net used for traditional puffin hunting in Iceland (especially Vestmannaeyjar), measures about 4 meters (13.1 feet or 157 inches) long, based on historical hunting descriptions.
b) The height of a Faroese puffin fleyg pole
A fleyg pole, used in the Faroe Islands for catching puffins mid-flight, measures about 3 meters (9.8 feet or 118 inches) long, per traditional seabird hunting records.
c) The length of a puffin burrow in Iceland
A typical Atlantic Puffin burrow in Icelandic colonies (e.g., Westman Islands) measures about 70–110 cm; we’ll use 90 cm (35.4 inches) as average.
Question: How many fit into each length comparison?
A) 11.1 Atlantic Puffins go into the length of a traditional Icelandic háfur net pole
B) 9.8 Atlantic Puffins go into the height of a Faroese puffin fleyg pole
C) 2.0 Atlantic Puffins go into the length of a puffin burrow in Iceland
Weight of the Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin weighs 550 grams (1.21 pounds). How many objects fit into the puffin’s weight (if the object is lighter) or how many puffins fit into the object’s weight (if the object is heavier)?
a) The weight of a smoked puffin from Iceland
A traditionally smoked puffin, a delicacy in Iceland (especially Vestmannaeyjar), weighs about 300–400 grams prepared; we’ll use 350 grams.
b) The weight of a puffin egg
An Atlantic Puffin egg weighs about 60 grams, per breeding data from Icelandic colonies.
c) The weight of a Faroese puffin hunting bag
A traditional bag used to carry harvested puffins in the Faroe Islands weighs about 1 kg (1,000 grams) empty, per cultural records.
Question: How many fit into each weight comparison?
A) 2.6 smoked puffins go into the weight of an Atlantic Puffin
B) 9.2 puffin eggs go into the weight of an Atlantic Puffin
C) 2.8 Atlantic Puffins go into the weight of a Faroese puffin hunting bag
Fast Facts about the Atlantic Puffin
- Range: Circles the North Atlantic, breeding from Newfoundland and Maine up to Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia, and the British Isles, then winters out at sea from the Arctic down to the Carolinas and Morocco
- Habitat: Nests in massive colonies on rocky cliffs and grassy islands with burrows dug into the turf
- Mating behavior: Monogamous pairs that stick together for years), with elaborate courtship involving bill-rubbing, head-bobbing, and preening…like awkward teens
- Diet: Piscivorous pros who hoover up small fish like sand eels, herring, and capelin.
- Hunting behavior: Dives like a feathered torpedo up to 200 feet deep, “flying” underwater with stubby wings to chase prey, then surfaces with a mouthful of groceries because efficiency is key when you’ve got pufflings to feed.
- Lifespan: Averages around 20 years in the wild, though the oldest ringed puffin kicked it at 36—proof that a fish-heavy diet does wonders for bird longevity
- Social behavior: Ultra-colonial breeders in groups of thousands, but they’re loners at sea; they huddle in burrows to fend off the cold and rivals, forming tight-knit cliques
- Predators: Great black-backed gulls and skuas snatch eggs and chicks, while rats, foxes, and feral cats raid burrows; adults mostly dodge by being too quick on the wing
- Bonus quirk: Those colorful breeding bills? They actually molt and fade to boring grey in winter, like nature’s own seasonal camouflage.
Major Fact: Puffinification
Stephen Kress, director of the National Audubon Society’s Seabird Restoration Program, successfully reintroduced Atlantic puffins to Maine’s islands after they were nearly wiped out by hunting by the early 1900s.
Starting in 1973, Kress transplanted young puffin chicks from Newfoundland and used innovative techniques—like placing wooden decoys and playing recorded puffin calls—to attract the social birds to nesting sites such as Eastern Egg Rock.
The effort has paid off: there are now over 700 nesting puffin pairs across four Maine islands, including 90 pairs on Eastern Egg Rock.
However, the decoy puffins were mounted on a single peg and placed on poles. The returning puffins observed these new stationary friends and thought they were standing on one leg.
Now, the real puffins stand on one leg in order to mimic the behavior from the decoys.
Why?
Many birds are observed standing on one leg—though it’s usually seen in long-legged birds like Flamingos. One theory is that some birds tuck one leg up to reduce heat loss through their unfeathered legs and feet, exposing less skin to the cold air.
Even though short puffin legs don’t shed as much heat as a stork stalk, maybe the decoys made the real puffs realize its a warm and cozy position.
It may also be a simple case of trying to fit in.
They become highly social during the breeding season. They set up nesting burrows close together (within a few body lengths). They forage in small groups of up to about 7 birds.
Arriving birds crouch horizontally or walk in a low posture to signal nonaggression and gain acceptance.
They form long-term monogamous pair bonds, often returning to the same burrow with the same mate year after year. Courtship involves males head-flicking and pig-like grunting near burrows to attract females. Paired birds reinforce bonds by billing (rubbing beaks together).
Ending
So put on your resting concerned face, be monogamous, and make friends with a dummy like the puffin here in LDT.