Playful Puffins

http://www.seattleaquarium.org/puffin

One of my favorite sea birds of all times are the Puffins! Not only are they colorful but they are also really interesting.
Before I start to talk about how special puffins are, let's review a few things about birds in general.

Birds are quite different from fish, marine mammals, and invertebrates.  Birds have a backbone just like fish and mammals do, but not like invertebrates.  Birds are warm-blooded and breathe air with lungs like mammals, but not like invertebrates or fish.  Birds have wings, a beak, feathers that cover their body and they lay eggs. Most birds can fly but some birds can’t, and a few birds can even swim!

http://www.pdza.org/tufted-puffin/

Puffins can be found in off the coast of Washington State and other places along the Pacific Ocean.  Puffins are a small black diving bird (alcids), weighing only about 2lbs and are well suited for the sea.  They have dense bones that are heavier than the shorebirds and have short, powerful wings that can "fly" through the water. 
Puffins are excellent divers since they spend most of their time in the water.  They hunt for bait balls of small fish or for squid. Puffins are able to hold many fish in their beak at once because they have small teeth like structures on the top of their mouth and a raspy tongue. This is important because puffins have to travel long distances to get to good feeding areas. Being able to carry many fish at once in their beak helps them conserve energy. They are also known to always eat the fish head first, so fish spines don't poke them.

Tufted Puffin holding many fish in its beak

Puffins nest in colonies on steep cliffs, or steep islands. Puffins make burrows into these cliffs by using their beak to dig and then kick out the dirt with their feet.  They then collect grasses and make a nest inside their burrow for their one white egg.  Parents take turns feeding and incubating the egg until the chick hatches after about 6 weeks. The parents usually care for the chick for about 40-50 days until the chick is ready to leave the burrow and leap out to sea. Puffins are known to stay with the same mate from previous seasons and use the same burrow too.

Stay tuned for a fun puffin mask art project coming soon!

Sources:
http://www.seattleaquarium.org/puffin
http://www.pdza.org/tufted-puffin/