**First Puffins of the year photographed on Tory Island, Donegal - image taken by Antion Meenan.**

The first Puffins of the year have been photographed on Tory Island Donegal image taken by Antion Meenan.

In Ireland and Donegal we are lucky enough to be home to puffins, some of most the distinct – and let’s face it, adorable – birds throughout all of Europe. While there are three types of puffins in the world, in Ireland we are home to perhaps the most iconic species, the Atlantic Puffins.

These seabirds look peculiar, like cross between a penguin and some sort of tropical parrot or toucan. But although they resemble an adorable children’s toy, puffins are actually wonderful seabirds, built to survive in harsh conditions, travel long distances, and expertly hunt fish in the open ocean.

Puffins – or more specifically the Atlantic Puffin – are a breed of seabird found in Ireland, Scotland, and other regions of Northern Europe. They have a wingspan of roughly 47cm-63cm and can reach about 20cm in height. Both females and males are nearly identical in colouring, which in the summer is black on the back with a white underside, and an orange beak and orange webbed feet. However, the large, orange bill that puffins are known for is actually only for show during mating season and this outer part of the beak is shed for the winter season.

Once ready to begin breeding, male and female puffins form long-term pairs – sometimes breeding for life – and both parents help in the raising of offspring. Each year, females lay a single egg, which the parents keep warm in their brood patches (more or less a featherless patch of skin on certain types of birds during breeding season where eggs can be kept warm).

Baby puffin are called pufflings, and look a bit like a creme egg! Born in spring month, they are brown and white and very fluffy, fed by fish held in their parents’ beaks, a feat made possible by the puffins’ large beaks that allow for a unique unhinging of the beak. Once the puffling chicks become independent, they spend the better part of their youth far at sea, only returning to land about five years later to find a mate and start breeding themselves. An Atlantic puffin’s lifespan is about 20 years.

Atlantic Puffins spend a good bit of their lives living on the open ocean, where they live off of local fish and zooplankton (the type of fish will depend upon their location). Once they attain breeding age (roughly five years old though it can vary), the puffins come ashore in remote coastal regions in order to breed and fledge their chicks, or pufflings.

The puffin breeding season usually starts in late March or early April, finishing in July or August, though of course they follow their own schedule which means that predicting their movements down to an exact week or even month isn’t always possible. At this time, the puffins leave Ireland and the rest of Northern Europe to winter in warmer waters down south.

Puffins at Tory, Donegal