Deep in the Atlantic Ocean is an army of birds that live far from civilization.
Sporting a colorful yellow, red and blue beak the puffin also called clowns of the sea or
sea parrots, these birds look almost like penguins but can fly. Their colorful beaks
change color with the seasons, being more pale in wintertime and more vibrant in spring
or mating season. The upper beak has a spine layer which allows it to hold more than one
fish which is essential when they feed their young. Aside from feeding on fish the Atlantic
puffin consume herring and eel, despite the puffin being a bird they are exceptional swimmers,
able to dive 200 feet and remain underwater for a full minute at a time.
Out of water, they can fly 55 mph or 88 km/h which requires them to flap their wings around
400 times per minute. Feeding on the puffin aside from humans are herring gull and black-billed
gull.
Spending their life at sea the puffin they make their way to the coast once a year to
have their babies. Mating for life puffin build burrows in rocky cliffs of the Faroe
Islands. Dug 3 feet into the ground or into the rock, one egg is laid by the female which
hatches in 42 days. 45 days after birth the young puffin will learn to fly over the open
sea and stay there not returning to land until they are able to reproduce 5 years later.
A puffin will live to about 20 years with most of that time spent sitting on the surface
of the ocean where they live.
There are four species of puffin, Atlantic puffin which is the most well known, horned
puffin, tufted puffin and rhinoceros auklet. The first 3 all belong to the Fratercula genus
where the rhinoceros auklet anatomically qualifies as a puffin but has a different appearance
and lives on the west coast of North America from Alaska to central California.
As you can see from this map the 3 types of puffin all live in the Atlantic in the yellow
areas and breed in the orange areas. With that said over 60% of all puffins exist in
Iceland more specifically the Faroe islands just off the southern coast of Iceland.
One of these islands, Ellidaey Island is home to a single house in the middle of it. At
first you might just think it’s just some loner living out their last days in solitude,
but this isn’t the case, this is a hunting lodge. At first glance, it may appear to be
a place devoid of any animals to catch but there are actually 4 - 5 million you guessed
it, puffin flying around the islands. Using a net, while hanging off the cliff’s edge,
hunters wait for a gust of wind to launch the puffin into the air. Hunters will catch
a bunch of these birds while staying in the lodge before heading back on a boat and small
plane to get to the mainland.
This island was inhabited by five families over 300 years ago but the last inhabitants
of the island left by the 1930s. Back in these times, feathers of the puffin were used to
decorate hats. There is much speculation to who actually owned this island many thought
it was donated to the Icelandic singer björk or that was just simply owned by a millionaire.
To get a glimpse of the puffin up close yourself you’ll need to take a puddle jumper plane
and a long dingy boat ride just to get to these islands.
Let me know in the comments below, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and until the
next one have a good one.