A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Fratercula arctica
The only puffin found in the Atlantic. Unmistakable with its black back, white belly and face, and, in breeding season, wonderful brightly-coloured beak. Sometimes called sea parrot. It is a pelagic bird, feeding on fish, coming back to land to breed (like most sea-faring birds). Smaller than most people think, much smaller than gulls etc.
Lives out in the open ocean most of the time, coming to land to breed. This colony is on an island just off of Reykjavik, called Akurey.
We saw this while on a whale-watching tour, the tour included a quick stop off at the puffin colony. We weren't able to get too close (the tour operators didn't want to disrupt the puffins, which pleased me), but I managed a couple of decent shots. You can see how dense the colony is in the 4th and 5th pictures (Mount Esja in the background). There are colonies in the UK where you can get closer to the birds, I would love to visit one someday.
Spotted on Jul 8, 2012
Submitted on Sep 11, 2012
3 Comments
Lovely.....
Thanks Satyen! They are lovely birds :D
Lovely spotting!