Atlantic Puffins are among the most recognizable seabirds, known for their brightly colored beaks and clumsy flight style. These birds spend most of their lives on the open ocean, returning to land only during the breeding season. They gather in large colonies on rocky coastlines and islands, but their young are rarely seen, raising curiosity about the next generation’s life cycle.
The Specific Name for a Baby Puffin
The name for a baby puffin is a “puffling.” Unlike the adults, pufflings have a dark, sooty, downy covering, which helps them blend into the dim environment of their nesting area. They lack the adult’s vibrant beak plates and orange legs, which only develop as they mature over several years at sea.
Pufflings hatch with open eyes and a coat of soft, dark feathers. This appearance provides camouflage against the dark soil of their burrow home, away from aerial predators. They grow quickly on a rich diet of fish, transforming into a bird that weighs nearly as much as an adult by the time they fledge.
Life Inside the Burrow
Puffins dig or occupy burrows, often two to four feet deep, in the grassy slopes of coastal cliffs to protect their single egg and subsequent chick. The parents take turns incubating the egg and then feeding the newly hatched puffling, which remains alone in the underground chamber for its entire nestling period. This solitary dwelling keeps the vulnerable young bird safe from gulls and other predators that patrol the colony’s surface.
Adult puffins deliver small fish, such as sand eels, which they catch and carry back to the burrow crosswise in their specialized beaks. They can hold multiple fish at once due to serrations on the upper bill and a muscular tongue that keeps the catch secured. The chick is fed consistently for approximately 38 to 45 days, gaining the body mass and strength needed for its independent life ahead.
The Journey to the Sea
Fledging marks the puffling’s sudden transition to complete independence. After accumulating sufficient weight, the puffling leaves the safety of its burrow, usually under the cover of darkness to minimize the risk of being seen by large gulls. The young bird often makes this journey without guidance or assistance from its parents, who may have already left the colony to begin their annual molt.
The puffling heads directly toward the sea, occasionally using the light of the moon or the ocean’s reflection to navigate. Once it reaches the water, the young bird is immediately self-sufficient, swimming away from the coast. It begins a life at sea that will last for the next three to five years, learning to forage and survive on the open ocean before returning to land to breed.