Atlantic puffin

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a small seabird with a big, colourful red-and-black beak. It has a black crown and back, grey cheeks, a white belly and orange legs. It is about 29 centimetres long, and it is the only puffin that lives in the Atlantic.

It spends autumn and winter far out on the cold northern sea and returns to coasts in spring to breed. It swims underwater by flapping its wings like paddles, and can carry more than ten small fish crosswise in its bill at one time. Because its numbers are falling in parts of its range, it is rated Vulnerable.

Colonies on cliffs

Puffins breed in places such as Iceland, Ireland, Britain, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Faroe Islands, Maine and Brittany. They are most common in the Westman Islands of Iceland. Each pair digs a burrow on a clifftop and lays a single white egg. Colonies are usually on islands without land predators, though gulls and skuas attack from the air.

The clown of the sea

In winter, puffins moult at sea and lose some of the bright colours on the face, which return in spring. Chicks fledge after about six weeks and leave the burrow at night to swim out to sea. They do not return to land for several years. Because of its striking beak and waddling walk, the puffin is nicknamed the 'clown of the sea' or the 'sea parrot'.

On the globe

The model shows an Atlantic puffin. Look for its colourful beak and orange feet.