When nesting, puffins often return with their bills full of fish. They are often photographed with caplin held firmly in their colourful beaks. Many rafts combine to make a colony of hundreds of thousands of birds. Unlike most colonies of seabirds, puffin ones are unusually quiet. Puffins communicate more with gestures than with sounds.
Male puffins have the same mate for many years or for life.
Once mating is complete, pairs find their old nest site, or choose abandoned burrow or dig a new one with their feet and beaks. The nest itself is simple. It is located at the end of a one metre long burrow. The nest is lined with bits of grass, a few twigs and the odd feather. Usually only one egg is laid by the female.