The puffins: the quickest fishers of Iceland

Posted on May 20, 2009 by cinzia

The puffins, or sea parrots, are small, black birds: they’ve white chest, short wings and a big coloured beak.

Because of their short wings, their flights are awkward: the puffins may reach up to 400 wing beats per minute to keep the height. But it is in the sea that they become very quick, so much so that the ancients considered them to be a crossbreed between a bird and a fish!
The Icelanders well- like these birds, also because of their characteristic appearance, and tourists look for them too.

The puffins (Fratercula arctica) belong to the Alcid family. Their life lasts approximately 20 years; the sea is so much their natural habitat that they live in it most of the year without going back to the coast.

Only during summertime, from May until August, they move to the dry land to mate. They nest on the cliffs, digging galleries where they lay their eggs. From year to year, they go back to the same nest and they usually mate with the same female.

In Iceland there are a lot of sea parrot colonies, indeed 60% of the world living puffins live here!
The cliffs that the puffins prefer are those on the South, such as the Dyrhólaey promontory, the Vestmannaeyjar islands (the Westman islands), the Lundey island, the cliffs of the Western Fiords.

To protect this species, a few Natural Reserves have been created, among which Dyrhólaey; these may be visited from June on, i.e. after the eggs open. During summertime the baby birds grow and at the end of August they’re ready to leave the cliff and start their life out in the open sea.

Since a few years there’s been a falling of the puffins population, mainly caused by the high exploitation of the ichthyic resources: fish is the only food the puffins eat and as its serious drop compromises the survival of these nice birds.

The puffin is one of the food that the Icelanders like the most. The hunters take advantage of the natural and characteristic curiosity of these birds, along with their attraction to the red colour: The huntsman dress in red, and in pairs- holding nests, get closer to the birds until they are only three meters apart, so that they may entrap the puffins very easily.