PUFFIN
Puffin,
also called sea parrot, lives in the Arctic waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There are four species, all related to
the Great Auk, which was hunted to extinction last century. Bird of comic solemnity, a swaggering Chaplinesque walk and a
starched-shirt and dinner-jacket plumage. Puffins take on vivid bill colours and facial embellishments during its breeding
season. Adults pair for life and annually come to shore to nest and rear a single chick in large, seaside colonies. At about six
weeks, pufflings, leave their parents and fly out alone to the open sea. Adults head out soon afterwards, as the autumn storms
approach and the small fish move away. Puffins eat herrings and sand eels, the biggest beakful on record is sixty two tiny fish.
Puffins have a life span of up to fifteen years. Uncontrolled hunting to provide feathers for hats, pillows and mattresses left the
eastern seaboard of North America severely depleted of Puffins. In addition to threats from oil spills and entanglement in
fishing nets, they are now threatened by competition for declining fish resources. Even small fish are now fished commercially.
The 'Paradisia Collection' wildlife design of artist Davvyd Brown portrasy
the beauty of the cute and resilient Puffins.
Paradisia Collection
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