Although they may not seem particularly tough at first glance, there is more to the adorable Atlantic puffin than meets the eye.
Picture this. You’ve returned home after a trip to the supermarket with a car packed with shopping bags.
Determined to make the ten-metre journey from the car to the front door in as few trips as possible, you loop three bags over each arm and hobble toward your kitchen, buckling slightly under the weight.
Reaching your destination, you deposit your bags feeling slightly proud that you saved yourself all the 30 seconds that you would have otherwise spent making multiple trips. If you’re anything like me, this may sound familiar.
Well, this is what I think about whenever I see a puffin impressively carrying a bucket load of fish in its beak.
They are truly the masters of efficiency, specially adapted for carrying large numbers of prey to an awaiting hungry chick.
But how can they carry over 100(!) fish in their beaks in one go, and how else have these birds adapted to withstand the often harsh conditions of the North Atlantic?
What makes Atlantic puffins so tough?
Atlantic puffins spend eight months of the year enduring the ferocious seas of the North Atlantic Ocean. Young birds leave their nest and spend the first two years in the open ocean.
After this intense initiation, the adults return to islands and coastal regions to form breeding colonies each spring and summer.
The first time I saw a puffin, I was visiting RSPB Bempton Cliffs Nature Reserve on England’s east coast. Over half a million seabirds gather here every spring and summer to create one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles in the UK.
This dramatic stretch of cliffs on the east coast of Yorkshire is full of the sights, sounds and smells of a vast seabird colony with species including gannets, razorbills, guillemots and, of course, puffins.
Honestly, the first thing I noted when I saw a puffin for the first time was how small it was, standing at a modest 25 centimetres tall. For some reason, I’d always imagined them to be much bigger.
However, size isn’t everything, as they are surprisingly speedy both inside and outside the water. In the air, they can beat their wings up to 400 times a minute, allowing them to reach speeds up to 55 miles per hour.
In the water, they are kept dry by their feathers which are completely waterproof. They are also excellent swimmers. By flapping their wings and using their feet as a rudder, they can stay underwater for up to a minute and dive up to 60 metres below the surface to catch their prey.
Their diet varies depending on food availability around breeding colonies, but it usually consists of sand eels, hake and herring.
How do puffins hold so many fish in their beaks?
You may have seen photographs in magazines or clips in documentaries of puffins looking like they’ve just raided the fish section at Morrisons, with sand eels hanging limply from their mouths.
As it turns out, puffin chicks are pretty needy and require almost constant feeding. So the parents must feed them several times a day to keep them healthy.
Carrying one fish back to the colony at a time is probably not the most efficient. So what is a poor parent to do? Carry back as many as possible, of course!
I was taken aback to find out that the record, according to the folks at Audubon, is 62. But other reports claim to have seen birds carrying over 100.
I amused myself imagining what the poor puffin must have looked like with that lot in its beak. I’m even more amazed that someone managed to count it. Turns out this was a particularly ambitious puffin, as most birds carry a more modest 10 fish at a time.
Their tongue and palate (the roof of the mouth) have backwards-pointing spines, allowing them to hold their meal in place while they open their mouth to catch more fish.
Impressive huh? Well, that’s not the only cool thing about their beaks.
A beak of many colours
One thing that initially surprised me about puffins is their iconic beak doesn’t maintain these vibrant colours all year round.
As summer in the northern hemisphere draws to a close, the birds leave their colonies and head out to sea. Shortly after, they shed the colour from their beaks, so it becomes a dull grey throughout the winter.
Scientists believe it may be related to mating because the bright colours appear to time with the breeding season. The beaks also grow in size and become more brightly coloured as the bird ages. This could signify to potential mates that a bird is more experienced.
If you’re curious to see a picture of a puffin in winter, check out the National Audubon Society website.
On the subject of their beaks, did you know that they glow under UV light? I didn’t either! And apparently, neither did many others until University of Nottingham researcher Jamie Dunning posted a tweet about it.
(1/n) Our paper on photoluminescence in the bill of the Atlantic puffin is [finally] published today in @_BTO Bird Study.
— Jamie Dunning (@JamieDunning) January 28, 2019
We document photoluminescence in the bill of two (naturally) dead, and three live Puffins, and suggest possible uses for the trait.https://t.co/J1wFJy7hzB pic.twitter.com/RnCKfCXB6B
Jamie was studying the genetics of a deceased puffin. He knew that the beaks of crested auklets, a seabird in the same family as puffins, glowed under UV light and wondered if a puffin would do the same. So he tested his theory, and sure enough, the beak lit up.
Photoluminescent markings are well documented in other birds, but it is not fully understood why puffins have this trait.
The photoluminescent regions are fully developed during the breeding season and shed over the non-breeding season. Therefore, it could be linked to attracting a mate, defending territories or providing for the chick by luring prey underwater.
The exact reasons are still unknown, but hopefully, scientists will discover the answer someday.
References
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/atlantic-puffin
- https://www.nordicvisitor.com/blog/5-things-may-not-know-puffin/
- https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694927/132581443#taxonomy
- https://projectpuffin.audubon.org/birds/puffin-faqs
- https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/to-do/wildlife/puffin
- https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/
- https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/atlpuf/cur/introduction
- https://projectpuffin.audubon.org/birds/puffin-chicks
- https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1988.tb02416.x
- https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/threats/
- https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/rspb-england/posts/remembering-the-torrey-canyon-50-years-on
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00063657.2018.1563771
- https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2019/jan/puffin-bills-‘glow’-under-uv-light-study-discovers.aspx
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/sharks-puffins-animals-biofluorescence-oceans#:~:text=The
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165783608003093?via%3Dihub
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