Recoveries by Condition for Atlantic Puffin

Protected species in most of Europe, currently hunted legally in Iceland and the Faeroes. Most encounters are obtained primarily during the breeding season, peaking in Jun-Jul (ca. 92% combined) – mainly after first year and adult birds. The bulk of encounters come from NW (93%) and N Europe (5%). Most of the encounters are obtained after 2000. The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years – from 86% pre-1960 (17% shot) to about 8% after 1991 (almost none shot). The share of recoveries based on alive birds largely increased – from ca. 9 to 91% respectively, the latter mostly due to ringing encounters.

Most shot birds come from S Norway and Newfoundland (mainly in the past) and the Faeroes. The species is vulnerable to oil spills, violent weather and seabird bycatch (Wernham et al. 2002, Anker-Nilssen et al. 2017, Bærum et al. 2019).

Annual Movements for Atlantic Puffin

Post-breeding dispersal starts Jul-Aug, the birds migrate quickly to the wintering areas. Scandinavian population migrates towards Iceland (encounters from Feb, as well as some from Jul of summering birds), the Faeroes (mostly Nov-Feb), S Greenland (Nov-Dec), Newfoundland, the British Isles and W Europe (Aug-May).

Tracked birds from Ireland travelled rapidly W into the N Atlantic in Aug, most reaching the Newfoundland-Labrador shelf; by Oct, all birds moved back to the mid-Atlantic where they remained resident until return to the breeding colony (Jessopp et al. 2013). Tracked birds from NW Norway took NE routes at the end of the breeding season to the Barents Sea (Anker-Nilssen, Aarvak, 2009).

The species undergoes a flightless wing-moulting period during winter (Lowther et al. 2020).

Breeding sites are reached back from late Feb (S) to Apr or even May (N).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Atlantic Puffin

Tracking studies revealed a dispersive pattern of movements changing through the non-breeding period (Guilford et al. 2011). Birds breeding in Iceland are found in Newfoundland mostly Oct-Nov, and in UK – mainly Aug. Most winter encounters of the British Isles breeders along SW & W Europe are from Dec-Feb, the earliest being from Aug-Sep. Birds breeding in E Scotland moult locally off the coast (Glew et al. 2018) and overwinter mainly in the NW North Sea (Harris et al. 2010).

Birds breeding in NW Greenland migrate generally S, the males used a form of chain migration (overwintering off SW & S Greenland coasts) while females appeared to largely use leap-frog migration traveling much farther (Burnham et al. 2021).

The species was found to be most abundant from mid-autumn to early spring in a recently identified major hotspot for millions of seabirds in the N Atlantic (Davies et al. 2021).