Their faces, beaks and feet are all grey! Mama and papa puffins take turns fishing and delivering their catch back to the nest for their little ones. For maximum efficiency, the joints of their beaks are notched. This means the birds can hang on to their catch even while diving back in, open-mouthed for more.
Another impressive fact? One little puffin can carry up to 10 fish in its muzzle at any one time. We know you do! This is 8 to 10 million puffins coming to the island every year, making it an ideal location to spot them.
These colourful birds start arriving in Iceland as early as April, but the best period to see them is between May and early August. This is when you should aim to travel to Iceland if this is one of the goals of your visit. As for the best locations to spot puffins in Iceland? There are colonies located along the coast around the country.
The best ways to see them include hiking along the coast and boat tours. A self-drive trip around the country will give you the best opportunities to tailor your days and itinerary to stop along the way for these fun excursions.
Don't hesitate to ask your travel consultant about adding a puffin tour or puffin- and whale-watching cruise to your itinerary! It'll make your time in Iceland even more special. Intrigued to spot these famous puffins and explore the natural elements of Iceland? Look up our best-selling tours for inspiration or get in touch so we can help.
One of our travel consultants based in Iceland will use their expert local knowledge to help you tailor an ideal trip. Catharine Fulton is a journalist and travel writer. Find Catharine on LinkedIn. We'd love to give you the same amazing travel experiences as you read about in our blog!
To visit the destinations and attractions mentioned in this post - and to discover a few new highlights along the way - check out these recommended Nordic Visitor tours.
Activity , Iceland , A little something about. How to get here: Located 30 minutes away from Skaftafell National Park in the south of Iceland, this area is great to add to your South Iceland itinerary. If your dream is to see a puffin up close then Papey Island in the East of Iceland is where you want to be. This small island was inhabited until , but nowadays its only residents are a busy birdlife population and the remains of the abandoned old houses, including the oldest wooden church in Iceland.
This location is definitely one off the beaten path making it a great location for those who want to have a unique puffin sightseeing experience. The remoteness of the island makes it a real up close and personal visit with the puffins in their natural habitat.
Like we said, a drive well worth it! And during the summer months, this peninsula becomes even more special when a large puffin colony settles in here. To reach Voladalstorfa you will need to make a short climb up to a bright orange lighthouse where you will find a small, not railed off, area to view the puffins.
At Hringsbjarg there is a viewing platform making it a safe and comfortable spot to view the puffins, great for those traveling with a family full of curious little explorers. Not only is this the westernmost point in Iceland, it is also the location of the largest sea-bird cliff in Europe!
Along these cliffs you will find one of the larger puffin colonies in Iceland resting in their cozy rocky burrows. These puffins are typically quite calm around people and easy to photograph as they are used to a high number of visitors.
The cliffs are easily accessible by car and there are clearly marked walking paths in the area. Just be sure to stick to the walking paths and use our tip about getting down on your stomach to view the puffins, these are some serious cliff sides that you do not want to fall down. It does require a long drive down a bumpy gravel road, but the fjord views make the drive pass in no time. Taking a boat tour around this area will get you nice and close to the puffins nesting grounds making it a great location to go to for photographing the puffins.
You may even get to see some dolphins swimming around the bay during your visit, two adorable animals in one trip! Learn more about these adorable animals and their charismatic personality in our article listing the top facts about puffins.
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Puffin Sightseeing Tips A puffin sighting will be a highlight of your time in Iceland, but similar to the Northern Lights, a puffin sighting is not a guarantee. Akurey and Lundey Only have a few days to spend in Iceland? Westman Islands If you want to be in the midst of the most puffin action in Iceland then the island of Heimay in the Westman Islands is the location for you. Papey Island If your dream is to see a puffin up close then Papey Island in the East of Iceland is where you want to be.
Previous Post Next Post. The oldest known puffin lived to be 36 years. Maximum age is difficult to determine because while researchers are able to band birds, puffins abrade these bands by nesting among boulders as well as spending the majority of their lives in the open ocean, which causes leg bands to corrode over time.
Both these mechanisms cause bands to become too worn to read. During winter, the bills and feet of puffins fade to dull shades of their summer colors. Every spring their beaks and feet turn a colorful orange in preparation for the breeding season.
The beaks and feet of puffins become brightly colored and the beak increases in size as the bird matures. Puffins use body movements to communicate in a variety of situations. In mating and courtship the puffins will pair up before they come onto the island from the ocean.
Once they are on land, the pair may perform billing, a behavior where puffins rub their beaks together. This display often draws a crowd of puffins to share in the excitement. An aggressive encounter between two puffins often begins by gaping. This involves a puffin puffing up their body to look bigger and opening their wings and beak slightly.
The wider the beak is opened the more upset the puffin. The puffin may also stomp its foot in place to show its displeasure. The bright colors of the feet and beak help illustrate these motions. If the aggressive encounter escalates into a full-scale brawl the puffins will lock beaks. They will then attempt to topple each other in a wrestling match by using their feet and wings in a flurry of action. A fight may gather a crowd of 10 or more puffin spectators. The combatants may become so involved in the fight they end up rolling off their rocky perch.
A puffin also communicates information in its manner of walking. The puffins that are guarding burrows usually assume a pelican walk position that has the puffin stand stiffly erect with its beak next to its body and using slow exaggerated foot movements. This makes the puffin look like a soldier on guard duty, which is just what it is doing by guarding the burrow. After a puffin lands it will assume a post-landing position. This is a site ownership display that serves as a mild threat to nearby puffins.
This position consists of landing with one foot in front of the other foot, with wings outspread and head angled down. This is a sign of non-hostility that relieves tension when landing in a group of puffins. This permits large numbers of puffins to congregate together, which has important social and predator defense benefits.
Puffins make loud growling calls usually from underground which sounds like a muffled chainsaw. The chicks "peep" for food from parents. Choose a call from the list below to hear what a Puffin sounds like. Puffins breed in colonies from April to August and over-winter from August to early spring on the open ocean far from land. Puffins tend to disperse widely during this time and as a result it is difficult for scientists to learn about this aspect of their life. Puffins are wonderfully adapted to spend months at sea.
They have waterproofed feathers, the ability to drink salt water and catch food. Puffin chicks leave a colony when they fledge and head off to the ocean without their parents.
They remain in the open ocean until they are years old. Then they return to the vicinity of the colony where they hatched and may nest near the burrow where they hatched. Scientists are unsure how puffins find their way home and are still learning how birds migrate. The puffins may make a mental map of their birthplace and use this to return later.
We still have much to learn from the migrations of seabirds. The greatest natural predator of the puffin is the Great Black-backed Gull. This gull can catch adult puffins in mid-air. The Great Black-backed Gull will circle high above a puffin colony and pick out a solitary puffin and catch it from behind by dive bombing the unwary puffin.
Herring gulls often wait for puffins returning from sea with a beakload of fish, pursue them and steal the fish. They also will pull puffin eggs or chicks from their nest.
Puffins avoid cleptoparasites by dashing for the safety of the burrow entrance to deliver fish and to avoid gulls. Puffins often circle past their burrow a dozen times or more waiting for a chance to safely deliver food.
Predators of puffins depend on the puffins as food to feed their own young. Although the sight of gulls eating a puffin is not pleasant, predation at large colonies does not hurt the puffin colony because the majority of the puffins survive.
Humans have had a very negative effect on puffins in the past. Today, there are threats on land and at sea. For example, over-fishing has caused a disaster for the colony on Rost Island in Norway.
In recent years puffin parents have not caught enough fish to feed their chicks.
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