The puffin bird is a representative of birds, distinguished by its small size and interesting coloration, which makes it look like a penguin. It has black and white plumage, red paws and a colorful triangular beak. Due to their funny appearance, puffins are often referred to as "sea parrots" or "sea clowns".
There are three types of puffins: ipatka (or Pacific puffin), hatchet puffin and Atlantic puffin. They all look the same, the only exception is the beak, which has a different color and size. The puffin lives on the North Pacific coast, the puffin lives on the American and Asian Pacific coasts, and the Atlantic puffin lives on the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean and North Africa.
Most sea birds nest on rocks, but the puffin bird is special, it needs an area with soft ground. The fact is that during the breeding season, in order to protect their offspring from large sea birds such as gulls and skuas, they dig holes two to three meters long and make a nest there. In winter, they try to live closer to ice-free waters.
Puffin birdamazing and unique, she not only knows how to dig holes and fly, but is also an excellent swimmer and diver. The bird can dive to a depth of 60 m and reach speeds of up to 2 m / s, such indicators would be the envy of any Olympic champion. They swim in a special way, waving their wings underwater, as if soaring in the sky. In one approach, a dead end can bring up to 15 small fish in its beak, there is no other way, because you need to feed your chick, which has a larger appetite than an adult.
The puffin bird can bring several fish at a time thanks to small spikes located on the upper part of the beak, as well as a rough tongue that presses the prey to the sky. A fish is simply not able to escape from such a capture, therefore, a bird, having caught one, hunts for another, and with such a speed that a dead end develops, no one can escape pursuit.
When it comes to flying, things are not as smooth as swimming. Only axes fly well, they can reach speeds of up to 80 km / h, but the rest of the puffins have a hard time. To take off, the puffin bird must jump off a cliff and make up to 10 swings per second. She lands on her stomach or on the head of her relatives.
The soulmate dead end chooses once and stays with her until one of them dies. During the breeding season, the birds dig a hole, the female lays one large egg, which both parents incubate in turn. After about 40 days, a fluffy black chick appears. His parents have to make6-10 food raids to feed this glutton. Around the 50th day, the parents stop feeding the chick, thereby pushing it towards independence.
Excellent swimmer, diver, excavator with beautiful coloration and funny look - all this is a puffin bird. Photos of these birds cannot but touch, but still in some places fishing for these funny birds is allowed. Their numbers are not so small, but still this species needs protection. Even where it is allowed to hunt them, there are strict rules, for example, you cannot catch a puffin if it is carrying a fish in its beak, because this means that it has a chick.
