Puffins through the year

Puffins spend most of the year at sea, returning in April to breed. They raise a single chick, feeding it multiple times daily.

Meandering Wild

Meandering Wild

United Kingdom

Spring In The Puffin Colony

  • After winter at sea, puffins return in brighter breeding plumage.

  • Colour changes are caused by carotenoids in their fish diet.

Eggs and chicks

  • Lay one egg (6cm), may lay a second if the first is lost.

  • Incubation: 5–7 weeks by both parents.

Pufflings

  • Covered in soft black down.

  • Stay in the burrow, dependent on parents.

Fishing

  • Parents bring sand eels and small fish to feed the chicks.

Summer In The Puffin Colony

  • Burrows are lined with grass and twigs.

  • Adults may linger after chicks fledge.

Autumn And The Return To The Sea

  • In July, pufflings begin to fledge, leaving burrows at night.

  • They stay at sea for 2–3 years before returning to breed.

  • Puffins are monogamous.

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