Seabirds
Atlantic Puffin
Fratercula arctica
Also known as
Common puffin
Distribution
Cold temperate to polar latitudes of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans
Ecosystem/Habitat
Nest on rocky coasts; feed in coastal to open ocean
Feeding Habits
Foraging predator
Conservation Status
Not listed
Taxonomy
Order Charadriiformes (gulls, auks & relatives); Family Alcidae (auks)
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Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google+Atlantic puffins are a colourful and charismatic seabird and are the only puffin that lives in the Atlantic Ocean. These seabirds are an icon of Atlantic Canada and are even the official provincial bird of Newfoundland and Labrador! Puffins are excellent swimmers and, like penguins, use their wings to swim underwater when chasing prey. They superficially resemble small penguins in appearance, but unlike penguins, they are good fliers and take long foraging trips far from their nesting sites. In fact, Atlantic puffins spend most of their life at sea, only coming to shore during the nesting season in the spring. Although they can fly, they are known to be quite clumsy when manoeuvring a landing on shore or the ocean’s surface.
- American Lobster
- American Plaice
- Arctic Char
- Atlantic Cod
- Atlantic Herring
- Atlantic Mackerel
- Atlantic Puffin
- Atlantic Walrus
- Atlantic Wolffish
- Beluga Whale
- Blue Shark
- Bowhead Whale
- Bubblegum Coral
- Canary Rockfish
- Capelin
- Chinook Salmon
- Dungeness Crab
- Eulachon
- Fin Whale
- Fjords
- Giant Pacific Octopus
- Great White Shark
- Green Sea Turtle
- Greenland Halibut/Turbot
- Greenland Shark
- Humboldt Squid
- Humpback Whale
- Kelp Forests
- Leatherback Sea Turtle
- Lingcod
- Lion's Mane Jellyfish
- Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Lophelia Coral
- Narwhal
- North Atlantic Right Whale
- Northern Gannet
- Northern Shrimp
- Orca
- Pacific Herring
- Pilot Whale
- Polar Bear
- Pom-Pom Anemones
- Redfish (Acadian & Deepwater)
- Sea Otter
- Sea Pens
- Sea Strawberry
- Seamounts
- Snow crab
- Sockeye Salmon
- Spiny Dogfish
- Thick-billed Murres
- Thorny Skate
- Tufted Puffin
- Yelloweye Rockfish