Atlantic Puffin —Ross Feldner

These sharp dressers have elegant plumage and a dramatically colored beak.

Nicknamed the “clown of the sea” they breed in burrows on islands in the North Atlantic, and winter at sea. Due to their weight Atlantic Puffins must flap their small wings frantically to stay aloft, however, when underwater those wings become powerful flippers that allow the birds to skillfully maneuver to catch small fish one by one until they have a full beak. They are long-lived often with life spans of 30 plus years and like many seabirds with long life spans their young take several years to mature.

Once widely hunted they have reestablished their small range in the U.S., although warming ocean waters caused by climate change has resulted in increasing breeding failures in parts of the North Atlantic. In the state of Maine, hunting, egg collecting and the introduction of sheep to nesting islands nearly wiped out the species from the state by 1900.

The puffin’s scientific name, Fratercula arctica dates back to the latter half of the 1800's. In Latin, the name means "little brother of the north" which alludes to the puffin's black and white plumage reminiscent of a friar's robes.