Atlantic puffin diet
These birds live most of their lives at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. By flapping their wings up to 400 times per minute they can reach speeds of 55 miles (88 kilometers) an hour. The Atlantic puffin dives for its food and uses its wings to swim underwater. They steer with rudderlike webbed feet and can dive to depths of 200 feet (61 meters), though they usually stay underwater for only 20 or 30 seconds. The Atlantic puffin is also found in Northern Europe. The Atlantic puffin breeds along the Atlantic Coast from the Canadian Maritimes south to Maine. The Atlantic puffin was once known as the common puffin. It dives both from the air and from the surface of the water and can dive hundreds of feet under the water in pursuit of prey. Females lay a single egg, and both parents take turns incubating it. It is a short and stocky diving sea bird about 12 inches in length with a wingspan of 20-24 inches.
Puffins typically hunt small fish like herring or sand eels. They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to stroke underwater with a flying motion. It is black on its uppersides and white on its chest and belly. The male uses his bill and feet to dig a nesting burrow on an ocean cliff or island. The birds often select precipitous, rocky cliff tops to build their nests, which they line with feathers or grass. It winters far offshore in deep ocean waters. Atlantic puffins land on North Atlantic seacoasts and islands to form breeding colonies each spring and summer. In the air, puffins are surprisingly fleet flyers. It catches small fish, crustaceans, and mollusks and usually swallows them underwater. When a chick hatches, its parents take turns feeding it by carrying small fish back to the nest in their relatively spacious bills. The Atlantic puffin is found on rocky coasts in the Northern Atlantic Ocean during the breeding season and on the open ocean in the non-breeding season. The puffin looks so different during breeding and non-breeding season that it was once thought to be two separate species of bird.
Atlantic puffin diet video:
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