Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (

auk Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct speci ...

s) in the bird

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Fratercula''. These are

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil. Two species, the tufted puffin and horned puffin, are found in the

North Pacific Ocean North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' ...

, while the

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family (biology), family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin being found ...

is found in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. All puffin species have predominantly black or black and white plumage, a stocky build, and large

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for pecking, grasping, and holding (in probing for food, eating, manipulating and ...

s that get brightly colored during the breeding season. They shed the colorful outer parts of their bills after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique underwater. In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute) in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface.

Etymology

The English name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated

Manx shearwater The Manx shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'') is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an ...

(''Puffinus puffinus''), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

''pophyn'' or ''poffin'') for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters.

Taxonomy

The

''Fratercula'' was introduced by the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosophy, natural philosopher. Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée department of western France. Note that page 14 ...

in 1760 with the

(''Fratercula arctica'') as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The name ''Fratercula'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

" from the word ''fraterculus'' "little brother", because the puffin's black and white plumage resemble robes worn by

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

s. The genus contain three species. The rhinoceros auklet (''Cerorhinca monocerata'') has sometimes been included in the genus ''Fratercula'', and some authors place the tufted puffin in the genus ''Lunda''. The puffins and the rhinoceros auklet are closely related, together composing the subfamily Fraterculini. The oldest alcid fossil is ''Hydrotherikornis'' from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while fossils of ''Aethia'' and ''Uria'' go back to the Late Miocene.

Molecular clocks The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleot ...

have been used to suggest an origin in the Pacific in the Paleocene. Fossils from North Carolina were originally thought to have been of two ''Fratercula'' species, but were later reassigned to one ''Fratercula'', the tufted puffin, and a ''Cerorhinca species''. Another extinct species, Dow's puffin (''Fratercula dowi'') was found on the

Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. They define the Santa Barbara Channel between the islands and the California mainland. The ...

until the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...

or early

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

The Fraterculini are thought to have originated in the Pacific, primarily due to their greater diversity there; there exists only one extant species in the Atlantic, compared to two in the Pacific. This species has shown some significant signs of animal intelligence. In January 2020, some researchers reported that, Atlantic puffins were seen using sticks as a tool to scratch themselves. The Fraterculini fossil record in the Pacific extends at least as far back as the middle

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, with three fossil species of ''Cerorhinca'', and material tentatively referred to that genus, in the middle Miocene to late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58

Behaviour

Breeding

Puffins breed in colonies on coasts and islands; several current or former island breeding sites are referred to as Puffin Island. The male Atlantic puffin builds the nest and exhibits strong nest-site fidelity. Both sexes of the horned puffin help to construct their nest. Horned puffin burrows are usually about deep, ending in a chamber, while the tunnel leading to a tufted puffin burrow may be up to long. The nesting substrate of the tufted and Atlantic puffins is soft soil, into which tunnels are dug; in contrast, the nesting sites of horned puffins are rock crevices on cliffs. The Atlantic puffin burrow is usually lined with material such as grass, leaves, and feathers but is occasionally unlined. The eggs of the Atlantic puffin are typically creamy white but the occasional egg is tinged lilac. Where

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s breed, sometimes Atlantic puffins breed in rabbit burrows. Puffins form long-term pair bonds or relationships. The female lays a single egg, and both parents incubate the egg and feed the chick (or "puffling"). The incubating parent holds the egg against its brood patch with its wings. The chicks

fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between egg, hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnera ...

at night. After fledging, the chicks spend the first few years of their lives at sea, returning to breed about five years later. Puffins in captivity have been known to breed as early as three years of age. After breeding, all three puffin species winter at sea, usually far from coasts and often extending south of the breeding range. Iceland is the home to most of the

s with about 10 million individuals. The largest single puffin colony in the world is in the Westmann Isles of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. In 2009, scientists estimated the number of nests to be 1.1 million, and number of individuals there is estimated to be up to 4 million.

Feeding

Like many auks, puffins eat both

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

but feed their chicks primarily with small marine fish several times a day. The puffins are distinct in their ability to hold several (sometimes over a dozen) small fish at a time, crosswise in their bill, rather than regurgitating swallowed fish. This allows them to take longer

foraging Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavi ...

trips since they can come back with more food energy for their chick than a bird that can only carry one fish at a time. This behavior is made possible by the unique hinging mechanism of their beak, which allows the upper and lower biting edges to meet at any of a number of angles. In 2019, animal experts observed puffins, in two separate geographic locations, using sticks to scratch themselves indicating that the seabirds have a basic ability to use tools.

Relationships with humans

Hunting

Puffins are hunted for eggs, feathers, and meat. Atlantic puffin populations drastically declined due to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and exploitation during the 19th century and early 20th century. They continue to be hunted in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The

Blasket Islands The Blasket Islands () are an uninhabited group of islands off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The last island to hold a significant population, Great Blasket Island, was abandoned in 1954 due to population decl ...

off the Irish coast of

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

saw a serious decline due to harvesting. Until the islands were abandoned in 1953, the islanders often lived just above starvation level. As a result, the puffins were hunted in large numbers for food. The Atlantic puffin forms part of the national diet in Iceland, where the species does not have legal protection. Puffins are hunted by a technique called "sky fishing", which involves catching the puffins in a large net as they dive into the sea. Their meat is commonly featured on hotel menus. The fresh heart of a puffin is eaten raw as a traditional Icelandic delicacy. On the small Icelandic island of Grimsey as many as 200 puffins can be caught in a single morning.

Related places and products

The name of the English island Lundy is believed to come from the

old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word for "puffin island" (Lundey), although an alternative explanation has been suggested with Lund referring to a copse, or wooded area. The Atlantic puffin is the provincial bird of the Canadian province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

. The

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

25.04

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

, released on 17 April 2025 by

Canonical Ltd Canonical Ltd. is a privately-held computer software company based in London, England. It was founded and funded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and related projects. ...

, was named "Plucky Puffin", following its tradition of naming Ubuntu versions with alliterative animal names. File:Stora dimun puffins for kitchen.jpg, Puffins are considered a delicacy on the Faroe Islands File:Faroe stamp 031 puffin.jpg, Faroese stamp of 1978 showing a puffin File:Lundy 1 Puffin 1929 Martin Coles Harman(rev)-4044.jpg, Reverse of "One Puffin" coin, Lundy 1929 File:Lundy 1-2 Puffin 1929 Martin Coles Harman(rev)-4046.jpg, Reverse of "Half Puffin" coin, Lundy 1929

References

Sources

* Alsop, Fred J. III (2001) "Atlantic Puffin" in: ''Smithsonian Birds of North America, Western Region'': Page 451. New York City: DK Publishing, Inc. * Ehrlich, P.; Dobkin, D. & Wheye, D. (1988) "Atlantic Puffin" in: ''The Birder's Handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds'': 207, 209–214. New York. * * Lee, D. S. & Haney, J. C. (1996) "Manx Shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'')", in: ''The Birds of North America'', No. 257, (Poole, A. & Gill, F. eds). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC * *

External links

*
Puffins at the Farne Islands, Northumberland
{{Taxonbar, from=Q311761 Articles containing video clips Diving animals Extant Late Pleistocene first appearances Subterranean nesting birds Taxa named by Mathurin Jacques Brisson