National Marine Conservation Areas of Canada

Canada’s National Marine Conservation Areas System Plan

Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica)

Puffins nest in burrows that they dig in grassy islands, or in crevices among the rocks. They feed their young fish and euphausiids (small shrimp-like animals) caught many kilometres offshore and brought back neatly lined up in their bill - as many as a dozen small fish at one time. Agile and fast swimmers, as are all alcids, puffins catch their prey by diving from the air or the surface of the water, using their wings to "fly" underwater and steering with their feet. Atlantic puffins occur only in the North Atlantic.