The Atlantic puffin is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean. It breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and the Faroe Islands. The puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. It moults while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-coloured facial characteristics are lost.
About Atlantic puffin in brief
The Atlantic puffin is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean. It breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and the Faroe Islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and parts of Great Britain in the east. The puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. It moults while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-coloured facial characteristics are lost, with color returning again during the spring. Although it has a large population and a wide range, the species has declined rapidly, at least in parts of its range. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature changed its status from \”least concern\” to \”vulnerable\”. In 2018, BirdLife International reported that theAtlantic puffin was threatened with extinction. The generic name Fratercula comes from the Medieval Latin fratera, friar, a reference to the black and white monastic robes of the northerly bird. Two other species of puffin are known from the northeast Pacific, the tufted puffin and the hornedpuffin, both of which are found in the northeastern Pacific. The rhinoceros auklet is closely related, together with the puffins, to the puffin. The specific name arca arctica refers to the northernly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek ΄ράξα, bear, referring to the north-northerly plumage of the species.
The juvenile has similar plumage, but its cheek patches are dark grey. It nests in clifftop colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. The chick mostly feeds on whole fish and grows rapidly. After about 6 weeks, it is fully fledged and makes its way at night to the sea. It swims away from the shore and does not return to land for several years. Colonies are mostly on islands with no terrestrial predators, but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. The striking appearance, large colourful bill, waddling gait, and behaviour of this bird have given rise to nicknames such as “clown of the sea’ and “sea parrot’”. It is the official bird symbol for the Canadian province of Newfoundland andLabrador. It is in the auk family, Alcidae, which includes the guillemots, typical auks, murrelets, a puffin, puffins and the razorbill. The species is also closely related to the rhineoceros auklet and the rhinooceros a puffin, and together, together, they form the tribe Fraterulini. It has a typical upright stance of an auk. At sea, it feeds mainly on small fish, which it catches by diving under water, using its wings for propulsion.
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This page is based on the article Atlantic puffin published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
