Page created on : January 4, 2000
Last updated : August 7, 2004

Those who make their home on Canada's east coast are well acquainted with the Atlantic Puffin. The only puffin of normal occurence on Canada's Atlantic shores, this happy water bird is easily recognized by its large triangular multi-coloured bill and head markings. The current population of this species in Canada is about 300,000 pairs, and this impish looking seabird is honoured as Newfoundland's provincial bird.

Once called the sea parrot by sailors roaming both the North and South Atlantic, the Atlantic Puffin takes up residence on the east coast of Canada during breeding season and can be seen along the edges of southern Labrador, northern and eastern Newfoundland, southeastern Quebec, the Magdalen Islands, Cape Breton's northeastern tip, the southern tip of NovaScotia and on New Brunswick's Bay of Fundy islands.

Coming ashore only to reproduce, puffins nest either in a chamber dug as the end of a long burrow into a grassy slope or in a crevice or cranny in the rock of a cliff. There, the female lays a single egg and shares the brooding with her mate for more than 40 days. About 45 days after hatching, the chick is ready to begin its own career at sea. A powerful swimmer but no flying ace, the puffin has difficulty getting airborne at all unless a strong headwind is blowing onshore.