ATLANTIC PUFFIN Fratercula arctica

There are three puffin species, which all stemmed from the Rhinoceros Auklet which I haven't photographed. The only one known to most English people is the widespread Atlantic Puffin, which is closely related to the similar Horned Puffin. It is a North Atlantic species, 90% of breeding is in Norway, Iceland and the UK as far east as Novaya Zemlya, although it extends to Greenland and the Gulf of Maine in smaller numbers. It is listed as Vulnerable due to a rapid decline caused primarily by overfishing. However the population is still thought to number over six million pairs. Very few see the winter nor juvenile attire, when the bill is reduced and the cheeks grey, since it is a highly pelagic species when not breeding.

Taken Farne Islands June 2015
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