Puffins are charming seabirds known for their colorful beaks and striking black-and-white plumage. Often called “clowns of the sea,” they stand out with their bright orange bills, expressive eyes, and upright posture. These birds spend most of their lives on the open ocean, returning to land only during the breeding season.
Their ability to thrive both in the air and underwater makes them remarkable. Puffins are strong fliers, capable of flapping their wings rapidly to stay aloft, but they are equally skilled swimmers. Using their wings to “fly” underwater, they dive deep in search of small fish, their primary source of food.
During breeding season, puffins nest in colonies along steep coastal cliffs. They dig burrows or use natural crevices to protect their eggs and chicks from predators. Both parents take turns caring for the young, bringing back mouthfuls of fish neatly lined up in their beaks—a sign of their excellent hunting skills.
Communication among puffins is a blend of body language and sound. They produce low growls and purr-like noises, especially during the nesting period. Their colorful beaks also become more vibrant during mating season, likely helping attract partners.
Types of Puffins
Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic puffin, often called the “clown of the sea” for its colorful, oversized beak that turns vibrant orange during breeding season, is the most widespread puffin species, breeding in colonies along the North Atlantic coasts from Iceland to Maine. Measuring about 10 inches long with a stocky body and short wings adapted for underwater “flying” to catch fish like sand eels, these charismatic auks spend winters at sea and return to burrows on grassy cliffs to raise a single chick, or “puffling.”
Though listed as vulnerable by the IUCN due to overfishing and climate change impacting food sources, their comical waddle and beak-loaded fish parades make them beloved icons of marine conservation.
Horned Puffin
Horned puffins inhabit the remote North Pacific from Alaska to Japan, distinguished by fleshy, horn-like projections above their eyes during breeding, which they shed post-season, alongside a striking black-and-white plumage and a multicolored bill. Slightly larger than their Atlantic cousins at up to 16 inches, they dive up to 200 feet for small fish and squid, nesting in rocky crevices on steep sea cliffs where they lay one egg tended by both parents.
Classified as vulnerable, their populations face threats from oil spills and warming oceans altering prey distribution, but they remain a hardy symbol of the rugged Aleutian Islands’ biodiversity.
Tufted Puffin
Tufted puffins, the largest of the trio at nearly 15 inches, breed along the North Pacific’s rugged coasts from California to the Bering Sea, sporting golden-yellow tufts of feathers curling back from their heads like a punk rock mohawk during mating displays. Expert swimmers with paddle-like wings, they pursue herring and krill in underwater pursuits, returning to earthen burrows on remote islands to incubate a single egg amid dense colonies that can number in the thousands.
Near threatened by habitat degradation from sea level rise and invasive predators, these “sea parrots” play a crucial role in nutrient cycling by ferrying marine riches to terrestrial ecosystems.