The Atlantic Puffin

The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is the provincial bird of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and rightly so, as 50% of the North American population come here to breed every summer.

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_{This puffin prefers a vegan diet (Photo: Ryan Sault)}

These "clowns of the sea" spend their entire winter bobbing around in the cold waters of the Atlantic catching small fish. In the summer they come ashore and build burrows on the rocky cliffs to breed and house their "pufflings" (Yes, baby puffins are called pufflings! Adorable).

_{(Photo: Bree Plater)}

Puffins are a long-lived birds, thought to reach 30-40 years of age. However, as with most long-lived species, they take several years to mature. Puffins can take 3 to 6 years to reach breeding age.
Atlantic Puffins can be found across the North Atlantic from Canada to Norway and south to Spain.

_{(Photo: Bree Plater)}

These photos were taken during our travels in Newfoundland, Canada back in June of this year. We actually visited the colony twice. The first time the puffins were still on eggs so there weren't many puffins out of the burrows.

_{Look out below! (Photo: Bree Plater)}

Two weeks later we returned and we were so glad we did. While the pufflings were still in the burrows and not visible, the adults were out hunting fish. And there were a lot of them! They were such curious birds too. They would perch on the cliff-side nearby and would take so much interest in all the colourful flowers. Ryan even placed the GoPro on the ground at one point and they came right up to examine it. However, In saying this they were still extremely cautious of humans and would not come near us, which is a good thing! We want our wild animals to stay wild.

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_{Puffin album cover? (Photo: Ryan Sault)}