Puffin - Overview

Order: Charadriiformes

Family: Alcidae

IUCN Red List Status:  Vulnerable

Population Trend: decreasing, although some colonies e.g. Skomer Island and the Isle of May are actually increasing.

Distribution: North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean; breeding colonies in Britain are mainly on north and west coasts. Well-known colonies on Skomer Island (Pembrokeshire), Bempton on Humberside and Portland Bill in Dorset. The largest UK colonies are in Scotland (particularly the Northern Isles and St Kilda), which comprise about 75% of the UK puffin population

Habitat: Open sea, grassy cliff-tops and islands, boulders at the foot of steep cliffs. Puffins spend around eight months of the year at sea and come ashore for breeding.

Description: Stocky build, very large triangular bill which is bright red, blue and yellow in the summer. Black and white plumage; orange, webbed feet.

Size: Body:- 30cm; Wing length:- males, 147 - 170mm. Females, 146 - 168mm. Weight:- males, 345 - 488g. Females, 310 - 345g.

Food: Sand eels in summer. Also whitebait sprats, herring, young cod or fish larvae.

The puffin's distinctive bill has given it the nicknames of 'sea parrot' and 'bottle nose'. Although it looks a bit like a penguin or a parrot, it is actually related to the auk family - its close, larger relatives being razorbills and guillemots.