This is an Atlantic puffin taking some lunch back to its chicks

The 2014 Commonwealth Games are being held where my mum was born in Glasgow, so today I thought that I should write about an animal that is found in Scotland.  I chose Atlantic puffins because they are a very beautiful bird.

Here are five interesting facts about them:

1. Besides living in northern Scotland, they also live off the coast of Norway, Greenland, Russia and Canada, with 60% of them breeding in Iceland.
2. They only have their beautiful coloured beak in spring.  When winter comes, they shed the outer shell of their beak, revealing a much smaller and duller beak.
3. Due to their colourful beak, they are also known as the “clowns of the sea” and “sea parrots.”
4. They have a rough tongue and sharp edges on their beaks that enable them to carry lots of fish and eels at once.  Some people have reported seeing individual puffins carrying 60-80 eels at once back to their nests to feed their chicks.
5. Atlantic puffins are very fast flyers and can flap their little wings at up to 400 times per minute.

I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.

Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about Atlantic puffins?