Huffin' and Puffin Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atlantic puffin

There are three individual species of puffin found around the world: the Atlantic puffin can be found - somewhat unsurprisingly - around the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, while both the tufted puffin and horned puffin are residents of the Pacific Ocean. The snorting (or huffing) puffin doesn't exist.

This particular image of a member of the puffin family would only be visible in its mirror (presumably a handy pool of water) from the spring through to the end of the breeding season in mid-summer. The orange-red bill plates that cover the tip of its beak, along with the featherless patches that give its eyes a triangular appearance, are shed in a partial moult after it flies out to sea for the remainder of the year. As a result, there are very few photos available of the Atlantic puffin wearing its winter plumage and it is not often realised that these cute little birds don't always look quite so bright and colourful.

Answer: Running across the surface of water, flapping its wings

Puffins are definitely capable of flight, but they don't tend to do that much of it as the shape of their wings is compromised to allow them to act as flippers while the birds are diving for fish. Also, their annual moult renders them flightless for a couple of months each year while they wait for their primary flight feathers to regrow.

Although they are graceful birds underwater, their comedic appearance on land continues when they take to the air. After expending a lot of effort 'running' over the surface of the water while flapping vigorously, they generally fly along above the surface before flopping (or, frankly, crashing) back down into it.

Answer: Spreading preen oil over its feathers to maintain its waterproofing

Puffins have to preen regularly, especially while at sea, otherwise their feathers become damaged, disarrayed and lose their ability to repel water. Most birds have a preen gland located just above the tail at the bottom of their back - which is why you always see them practically bending themselves double during the preening process as they seek to coat their beaks in the preen oil secreted by the gland. Puffins are no exception and their daily grooming routine will include making sure all of their feathers get primped into place and a fresh coat of oil applied.

If you looked very closely at the preening puffin in the picture clue (you'd probably have needed to click on it to enlarge it), then it would have been possible to tell that this particular bird isn't an Atlantic puffin. The giveaway is the distinctive black markings around its eye - one pointing upwards and the other towards the back of its head - that identify it as a horned puffin.

Answer: Using its flexible beak to hold multiple small fish while it continues to catch more

Generally speaking, a puffin's diet consists of small fish such as herring and sand eels, with the occasional addition of shrimp and other similar types of seafood. Given that the average Atlantic puffin weighs around 0.5 kg, a typical Atlantic cod (weighing in at up to around 100 times that figure) would be well outside the scope of the type of fish a puffin is able to catch!

Puffins can spend around a minute underwater and will usually catch multiple fish in that time. It is therefore quite common to see pictures of puffins with up to around 20 fish hanging from their beaks. A puffin's beak has an unusual structure that allows it to hold the initial fish, while it continues to scoop up more. In particular, it has a range of small spines attached to its upper palate (if you look carefully at the bird in the picture clue you should be able to spot them) that it presses any existing catch against with its tongue to hold them in place when it opens its beak again. Also, the beak has a flexible hinge, with the upper and lower parts separated by a fleshy section called a 'rosette', so it can open wider and hold more fish.

Answer: Its underground burrow

Puffin breeding grounds tend to be grassy slopes next to cliff tops. However, the slopes are pitted with the entrances to the underground burrows where the puffins nest and care for their young. The puffins build the burrows themselves by gouging out soil with their beaks and then using their feet as shovels to kick the dirt out through the entrance. Once a pair of mated puffins have dug their burrow, or claimed an existing site, they will then often attempt to return to the same burrow every year.

However, even if the puffins don't have to build a new burrow from scratch, the pair are likely to still have a fair bit of maintenance work to do, either clearing out soil and detritus from the burrow or repairing its structure if it has been damaged. Since puffin breeding colonies are often home to tens of thousands of breeding pairs, their networks of burrows can undermine the stability of the ground and collapses can be common - particularly if any careless or particularly heavy-footed humans decide to take a walk across them...

Answer: Billing

As ably demonstrated by the loved-up pair of puffins in the picture clue, 'billing' is a term used for similar courtship routines displayed by a wide variety of birds around the world. It is most commonly associated with doves and the resulting phrase "billing and cooing" became used for humans as well - particularly ones showing each other excessive amounts of affection in public.

It is generally accepted by naturalists that puffins use billing as part of the process of restoring the bond between couples, as despite only spending time together during the breeding season, puffins tend to be monogamous and return to the same partner year after year. However, it obviously forms a bigger part of a pair's relationship as they continue 'billing' with each other right through the breeding season and not just during a mating ritual.

Answer: True

All three species of puffin are known for laying a single egg each year. The main exception to this occurs when the pair have laid their egg fairly early in the breeding season and lost it or their young chick to predators. If they have time, they will then start again by laying another single egg. Puffins eggs are quite large (weighing about 60 grams - around 10% of the weight of the adult bird) and plain white in colour, although they soon get quite muddy.

The chick hatches after an incubation period of around 39 to 45 days and remains in its underground burrow until it is ready to fledge, around a month to a month-and-a-half later. It will usually emerge from the burrow after dark and heads straight out to sea. Since it isn't fully capable of flight, it has to walk, jump or flap down to the water and then start swimming. Juvenile puffins remain out at sea for the first few years of their life.

Answer: Great skua

All of the birds listed as options are known for attacking or harassing puffins, however only the great skua is generally capable of taking down a healthy adult puffin. Greater black-backed gulls also have this ability, but smaller members of the gull family such as the herring gull and lesser black-backed gull are not strong enough and have to content themselves with hunting for puffin eggs, snatching and killing juvenile puffins or harassing the puffins to make them drop their fish. The Arctic skua is also known for attacking puffins in mid-flight in order to steal their hard-earned catch of fish.

In addition to this set of avian predators, while they are in the water puffins also have to keep a sharp eye out for seals and even large fish that might fancy them for dinner. On land, puffins and their eggs can also be threatened by animals such as foxes and rats - which is the reason why a lot of puffin colonies are found on small islands that are not home to such creatures.

Answer: Iceland

The puffin-shaped signpost in the picture clue is written in Icelandic and was photographed in Heimaey, a small island off the south-west coast of Iceland that is home to a colony of around 8 million Atlantic puffins. While the main economic activities on the island are fishing and tourism, a small number of puffins are also caught there each year and eaten during a traditional annual festival.

Puffin meat (either smoked, grilled or fried) is a common menu item in Icelandic restaurants. Puffin heart is a less common delicacy and distinctly less popular with tourists keen to experience traditional Icelandic cuisine - most likely because it is consumed raw.

Atlantic puffins breed on the coastlines of several northern European countries, including Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands (where they are also often on the menu) and the United Kingdom (where they definitely aren't!).

Answer: Parrot

Humans (those strange beings wandering the puffin colony with cameras) have several nicknames for the Atlantic puffin, including "sea parrot". At first glance there isn't much resemblance between a puffin and a parrot - puffins don't have brightly coloured feathers, aren't known for mimicking human speech (as when they do make a noise they sound more like a chainsaw) and aren't vegetarian. However, they do have a colourful beak - so perhaps that is the reason behind the nickname! (Although in that case you would think they'd be called sea toucans...)

After a busy day, Atlantic puffins can often be spotted taking an early evening stroll around the breeding colony, while others might choose to simply stand by the entrances of their burrows. At nightfall the adult birds tend to fly out to roost at sea, ready to return in the morning to start a new day with a fresh load of fish.

Just for the record, the picture clue shows a blue-and-yellow macaw, a member of the Psittacidae family of true parrots.