On land, puffins are agile and can stand and walk nimbly on their toes. It is in the air that the dignified, agile puffin becomes a bit awkward. They must run along the water surface for a long way, sometimes flying right through waves before they can take off. From land they dive off cliffs to gain enough speed for flight. In the air, as in the water, they use their feet to help change direction.
Puffins feed in flocks, with fish and zooplankton the mainstay of their diet.
When catching fish for their young, they manage to line them up crosswise in their bills, heads dangling out one side, tails another, somehow not losing the one already caught when they add another to the line. Tufted Puffins are famous for stealing the bait from fisher s hooks as they go into the water. Historically, puffins were used for food and clothing by Alaskan Natives. One method of catching puffins was by using a net on the end of a long pole. The hunter waited for a puffin to fly in towards its nesting burrow, then suddenly placed the net in the puffin s flight-path.