Blog Post

A pair of Puffins at Marwick Head

  • by Brian Alexander
  • 14 Jul, 2020
My wife Jane photographed these pair of Puffins at Marwick Head, Birsay Orkney yesterday evening. Puffins form long-term relationships and lay a single egg. Both parents incubate the egg and feed the chick. Puffins are able to hold several small fish at a time, crosswise in their bill, rather than regurgitating swallowed fish. This allows them to take longer trips since they can come back with more food energy for their chick than a bird that can only carry one fish at a time. This behavior is made possible by the unique hinging mechanism of their beak, which allows the upper and lower biting edges to meet at any of a number of angles.
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