olena
<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
- Joined
- May 12, 2001
Provincial Bird
Atlantic Puffin
Fratercula arctica
Description 12" (30 cm). A short stocky bird. Black above and white below, with white face and red legs; its remarkable triangular bill is brilliant red and yellow. In fall, horny outer covering of bill is shed, leaving it smaller and duller.
Voice Deep throaty purrs and croaks.
Habitat Chiefly rocky coasts.
Nesting 1 white egg in a burrow in soft soil or a rock crevice; nest cavity is lined with grass. Nests in colonies.
Range Breeds from Canadian Maritimes south to Maine. Winters offshore near nesting colonies, rarely south to Long Island. Also in northern Europe.
Discussion This clown of the sea is a comical-looking bird with a dumpy figure, red-rimmed, gleaming yellow eyes, a gaudy bill, and a habit of waddling around, jumping from rock to rock. It nests in much smaller colonies than do most other alcids. Puffins hunt their food -- small fish, shellfish, and shrimp -- in rocky coastal waters and also at sea. They are excellent swimmers and divers. The birds breeding in Maine have only recently been established there as a result of a captive breeding program in which nestlings from Newfoundland were hand-reared on islands, with the hope that they would return to the area as adults.
Atlantic Puffin
Fratercula arctica
Description 12" (30 cm). A short stocky bird. Black above and white below, with white face and red legs; its remarkable triangular bill is brilliant red and yellow. In fall, horny outer covering of bill is shed, leaving it smaller and duller.
Voice Deep throaty purrs and croaks.
Habitat Chiefly rocky coasts.
Nesting 1 white egg in a burrow in soft soil or a rock crevice; nest cavity is lined with grass. Nests in colonies.
Range Breeds from Canadian Maritimes south to Maine. Winters offshore near nesting colonies, rarely south to Long Island. Also in northern Europe.
Discussion This clown of the sea is a comical-looking bird with a dumpy figure, red-rimmed, gleaming yellow eyes, a gaudy bill, and a habit of waddling around, jumping from rock to rock. It nests in much smaller colonies than do most other alcids. Puffins hunt their food -- small fish, shellfish, and shrimp -- in rocky coastal waters and also at sea. They are excellent swimmers and divers. The birds breeding in Maine have only recently been established there as a result of a captive breeding program in which nestlings from Newfoundland were hand-reared on islands, with the hope that they would return to the area as adults.