The puffin is also called the sea parrot because of its bright multi-coloured beak. Marine birds that inhabit cliffs, puffins can dive 50 metres underwater in search of food. Their diet consists mostly of small fish such as caplin and herring, but they also feed on sand eels. These small birds, weighing around one pound, are about 30 cm. high. Their wing span is approximately 55 cm., and they can fly up to 80 km. per hour.
Puffins spend the majority of their lives on the water.
They live approximately 25 years, usually mate for life, and produce only one egg per year. They can be found as far south as Maine and are common throughout the Atlantic provinces and Iceland. Witless Bay, Newfoundland, is home to the largest puffin colony in North America. Labradorite Labradorite Reproduced by permission of David Liverman, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. A mineral discovered in northern Labrador, it was first described by Moravian missionaries in the late 18th century and brought to Europe.