The Atlantic puffin is a pigeon-sized  bird with a vividly coloured parrot like beak. It has a life span of 15 to 25 years. The puffin's upper body has dark coloured  heat absorbing feathers while the underbody has white air-filled feathers that act as insulation, an important adaptation for life in the cold Atlantic Ocean.  Although they appear awkward in aerial flight, they are excellent aquatic flyers.

Puffins  spend most of their lives living independently in the open ocean, but during the spring and summer they return to highly social lives in  nesting colonies.  In the nesting colonies they mate and raise a single chick (puffling) in shallow  burrows.  Puffin parents take turns either guarding or finding food for the puffling. Over fishing of small spawning fishes near nesting colonies has been associated with high puffin chick  mortality, but awareness has improved their fortunes.

Puffins are an important part of ocean ecology as seabird droppings offer a significant contribution to the ocean's nutrient cycle. The success or failure of seabird  populations is considered an important indicator of the health of the ocean's ecosystem.

Major Atlantic Puffin colonies can be found  on the sea swept coasts and offshore islands  of Greenland - Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada - Iceland - Scandinavia - The British Isles and The Gulf of  Maine USA.