Stats

Lifespan: 20-30 yrs
Size: Small
Diet: Carnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Colony
Biome: Temperate ocean
Range: North Atlantic
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Burrowing
Status: Vulnerable

About

A stocky North Atlantic seabird famed for its triangular bill, which flushes vivid orange, red and yellow only during breeding season and is shed back to a drab grey each winter. Puffins can carry a dozen or more small fish crosswise in their bill at once thanks to backward-pointing spines on their tongue and palate.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2.
hatchling
A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Alcidae
Genus: Fratercula
Species: Fratercula arctica