The Secrets of Atlantic Puffins

Clown-like eyes and party-colored beaks, these cute Atlantic puffins settle on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Faroe Islands are between Norway and Iceland, and this territory has one of the largest puffin populations, and most of these puffin dwellers roost on Mycenae, one of the 18 main islands of the Faroes. The puffins are the most favorable bird for the local residents and tourists. The popularity of these colorful little owsids is even overtaking the ranks among the national birds like the mute swan and the gear falcon. There are interesting facts about puffins. Puffins are seabirds. Puffins spend most of their lives in the sea and only return to land to breed. They hunt at sea, live at sea, and even during the winter. They enjoy their lives on the sea, and their versatile waterproof feathers protect them from weather changes. Puffins are well adapted to the marine environment. They colonize the North Atlantic Ocean. The bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Range, which widely extends through the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere, and forms numerous islands, gulfs, and seas, and the density combination of land and sea becomes the avalanche for the puffins. Puffins are monogamous. They only have one mate for life. They usually pair up with the same partner and return to the same burrow as the previous year. Some have been together for 20 years. Puffins are excellent swimmers and divers. They can dive 60 meters underwater for food. When they dive, their wingtips flip as if they are flying in the water. The deepest a puffin can dive was recorded at 250 feet. Puffins don't make nests. They dig burrows of one meter depth. They are usually in between the rocks on steep cliffs so predators cannot reach them. Puffins' holes can usually be discovered on turfy islands, turf soil, rock cliffs, etc. A puffin is known to have strong loyalty not only with their mates, but will also maintain its burrow for years. Puffins have toilets. They are extremely clean animals and have separate toilet areas in their burrow. It is usually close to the entrance, sometimes around a bend. The puffling needs to be kept clean as the dirty feathers can ruin a puffin's waterproofing. Puffins' beaks change color. Their beaks are dull gray in the winter, but switch to a technicolor orange hue in the mating season to attract their mate. Puffins' beak typically has a blue base and orange and yellow stripes. They are fluorescent in the dark. When a puffin wants to make a good impression on his mate, the colorful beak is all that matters. It seems that the only purpose of the glowing beak is to attract a mate. Puffin's chick is called puffling. Puffins have just one puffling each year. Puffins only lay one egg from April to early May. The parents will land on the ground during the breeding season and incubate the egg for nearly six weeks until the egg hatches. And the puffling takes about six weeks or longer to fledge. Puffins are carnivores. Small fish like herrings, hockeys, and sand eels are their primary food source. The pigeon-sized puffin can't hold the larger fish. Instead, they will grasp small fish around their gills. Puffins' tongues and spiny palate allows them to grab over 10 small fish in their beaks per dive. One puffin in Britain set a record for holding 62 fish at one time. When a puffin hunts, it will dash like a bullet and make multiple quick and shallow dives to catch a massive amount of fish. Thanks to the flexible beak hinge, the upper and lower jaws of the puffin are joined with resilient soft flesh that allows puffins to open their jaws wider. Its raspy tongue holds the prey tight so they can't escape and will allow puffin to hunt multiple times while it clenches the fish with its teeth. Puffins are long-lived birds. Puffins have a short list of enemies. Their biggest enemies are large birds like skuas or great black-backed gulls. Puffins often choose a sparse island to settle down where they can live safe and peacefully. Puffins protect themselves by digging burrows between rocks or under a layer of earth. So predators find it difficult to track them. When an unlucky puffin is targeted by its predator, it will fly up and down or dive to get rid of it. If it gets caught, it won't act placid as usual to be eaten up easily. Rather, it will aggressively fight to get free. They are considered by scientists as highly intelligent animals. Puffins can live more than 20 years. The oldest known puffin lived 41 years in Norway.