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Fratercula arctica
Catch of the day! The Atlantic puffin is unmistakable with its broad triangular and colored beak. Atlantic puffins can carry several fish in their beaks at one time, by pushing the fish to the back of their mouth; ridges at the top of their bill secure the fish in place. This allows puffins to keep their mouth open and catch more fish without losing any. They can hold around 10 fish in their beak at once!
Coastal cliffs and moorland surrounded by glacial black sand dunes (sandar). Part of a large colony at the Ingólfshöfði reserve: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ing%C3%B3lf...
The exact proportions of the beak vary with the age of the bird, and the bright orange bill plates develop in the spring. The fish in the puffin's beak are sand eels, an important food source for seabirds. Sand eels are the single most important food source for the majority of Icelandic seabird species. Sand eels stocks around Iceland have decreased recently, and this has been tentatively linked to climate change, increase in mackerel numbers and overfishing.
76 Comments (1–25)
Thank you Ali!
Wow! Very beautiful;-)
Thanks Pam!
Just love your spottings, Daniele... Love the last photo - Puffin Hill!
Thanks Sarah! I'm glad you liked it.
OH......WOW......
I love love love Puffins!! What a FANTASTIC series!! CONGRATS!!
I soooo love your photos!! :)
Glad you like it meesha :-)
wow....so cute...
Belated thanks António and AustinC!
Om nom nom. Nice shot!
Gorgeous capture Daniele my friend,congrats on the SOTD and thanks for sharing
Thank you all for your last comments!
AWESOME !!!!! congratulations !
great series
beautiful SOTD! love it
Super. Congratulations Daniele :)
Belated thanks for the honor Karen, and thank you everyone for your kind comments! I'll just add that Iceland is home to some of the world's largest colonies of puffins. These birds are are both strangely beautiful (they do look like cartoons!) and fun to look at. Their funny antics and maneuvers both in air and on land can entertain and fascinate observers endlessly.
Congratulations Daniel!
Congratulations on SOTD.
congrats Daniele!!!
congragulations! nice series daniele!
Congratulations on SOTD.
Many Many Congratulations Daniele!
Wonderful captures,
Congratulations, Daniele!
Awesome spotting! Superb! Congrats Daniele! :)