Results: Puffins: the clowns of the sea

(Sources: Eric Grundhauser and National Geographic) Puffins are cute, curious little seabirds that spend their lives trying to eat fish and breed among the coastal rocks. They come from a family of birds known as auks. They live in coastal areas and are instantly identifiable by their black-and-white coloration, thick beaks that turn orange in the spring, and rounded shape. Also known as the "sea parrot," or the "clown of the ocean," they can be found in a few places across the globe including along the coast of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Have you ever been near a puffin?

The main challenges for puffins these days are the effects of climate change on their food supply. Climate change is affecting the food chain from the bottom up. From plankton to foraged fish that the puffins feed on. As the world's oceans warm, fish are dying off or moving to different parts of the ocean, making it hard for puffins to get enough food to raise a chick. For puffins to get enough food, the right type of fish needs to be available at the right time of year, and in abundance. Even a food fish's body type can lead to problems. It has to be just the right shape or they can't even swallow it. Is foraged fish easy to find in your area?

While the changing global climate is easily the most devastating factor affecting puffins, it is far from the only thing putting them at risk. As humans move in closer to the puffins' habitat, baby chicks are confusing the artificial lights from homes and businesses for the stars that would usually guide them to sea. "The vast majority of seabirds navigate by following the horizon, which always has a glow. Seabirds, including puffins, fledge at night without parents as they are protected from predation at this time. So artificial lights can disrupt and confuse the birds causing them to fly towards towns. While puffins don't fly as they leave the nest—they generally walk or swim—the problem is just as pronounced for them. Did you know how lights affect seabirds before this survey?

Then there are the predators. Despite their imposing beaks, puffins make for easy pickings for a number of predators. The colony Thorpe helps protect has seen rodents decimate the local puffin population by eating the helpless chicks right in their underground nests. Larger gulls can also be a danger. Even humans have historically hunted puffins for their feathers and meat. While the practice of eating puffin has fallen out of favor across much of the world, the people of the Faroe Islands still see the puffin as food. Have you ever eaten puffin?

Puffins can live to be 20 years or more. But if they're not being successful year after year, that does reduce the population, and that seems to be what's happening in Iceland right now, where most puffins live. Can you mention any other bird that lives for such a long time? Right now I can only remember parrots and the Canadian goose. If you remember any other, please let us know in the comments below.