Puffins

Puffins

by Aidan Sion

“Peep peep peep” two pufflings are born in the den, three feet below rocky cliffs. The mother is out getting food for her babies. She carries lots of fish to feed her young.The pufflings are waiting and waiting for their fish with wide open mouths.

Appearance

The puffin is a species of birds about 11-12 inches tall and has the weight of  13oz - 17oz. The wingspan  is 47cm- 63 cm. Puffins are black, gray  and white with long black necks.They have yellow feet and yellow legs, however in the breeding season they turn bright orange. Puffins have extremely thick white and black feathers. Male puffins are taller than female puffins so now we can tell the difference between males and females.

Diet and Prey

Puffins are are omnivores, but instead choose to solely eat

meat. They eat herring, sprats, capelin and mollusk. Puffins can carry about 20-40 fish all at once. One puffin was caught on camera to catch 63 fish (thats a lot.) The reason these birds can carry so many fish is because they have spikes on their tongue which allows them catch more fish because they get caught on the spikes and then the fish can’t fall out of the puffin’s mouth. Then the puffin can swoop down and grab more fish to feed its young.   

Predator

Even though the puffin’s small it has few predators because they live high up in the cliffs three feet below the dirt. The only predators this bird has on land are gulls, foxes and, hawks. They don’t have many predators on the water either. One of the puffin’s main predators in the water is man.

You can find puffins in a borrow in a clifts three feet below the earths surface. You can also find them in the Coastal Regions and it depends on what species it is to see where it lives, but most puffins lives in the Coastal Regions.

Interesting Facts

Puffins are very good swimmers and can be really fast in the air. They can swim up to 55 mph for short periods of time with their wings beating up to 300-400 times every minute.

These birds are truly amazing and its hard to not see that!!