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.
Puffins make their homes in crevices between rocks or use their webbed feet to dig burrows.
Interestingly, puffins maintain the same burrow year after year. Puffin couples do not always see each other throughout the winter but meet up at the nest each spring. A baby puffin, puffling, is born approximately 40 days after the egg is laid. The baby needs a lot to eat and depends upon his parents to gather the necessary amount. When gathering fish, puffins specially arrange them in their beaks so as to fit the largest number possible.