Puffins resemble penguins as their white underbelly contrasts their black coat. This coloring is a form of camouflage called counter shading. Puffins are nicknamed parrots of the sea, because of their colorful triangular shaped beaks. In early fall the blue plates on the beak fall off and the puffin s breeding plumage changes to a subdued tone. The average puffin life span is 25 years.
Puffins get from one place to another in several ways.
Puffins are strong fliers averaging speeds of fifty miles per hour. The puffin s wings flap between three and four hundred times per minute. Atlantic puffins live at sea for nine months of the year and live in puffin colonies the rest of the time. It is widely believed that puffins mate for life although they do not begin the mating process until age five. When nesting, female puffins lay just one egg per breeding year with an incubation period of forty-two days.