Puffin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Puffin - Essay Example Puffins most defining feature are their fat beaks that are dull and gray in the winter and then brighten to florescent oranges during the mating season. Puffins have also been called names like "little friar" and "sea parrot" because of their comical markings. Puffins are pelagic, which means they live in and on the water throughout the year and the only time they come on to the land is to reproduce (NHPTV). Puffins mate for life and females only lay one egg a year which both parents care for (Barjaktarovic). The baby puffin, or puffling, is under the supervision of both parents for less than two months and is then ready to take care of him or herself. There are four species of puffins. The Atlantic Puffin, the Horned Puffin, the Tufted Puffin, and the Rhinoceros Auklet. The Atlantic Puffin, otherwise known as the Common Puffin, is the only puffin that can be found on the Atlantic Ocean. There are somewhere between twelve and fifteen million Atlantic Puffins living on the skirts of the Atlantic Ocean (Project Puffin). Most of them can be found near Iceland. Atlantic Puffins are the smallest of the species and can also Page 2 The Horned Puffin gets it's name because of the large mascara-like black markings or "horns" jutting out from it'