Puffins in Iceland: Watching Adorable Seabirds Naturally
Visualize a bird having a bright colored beak, fat torso, and a funny waddle. That’s the puffling, an amusing seabird which has been adopted as an iconic symbol of Iceland. If you are adding an Icelander trip to your bucket list, do not forget to witness these marvelous creatures.
Puffin Paradise: Iceland’s and the petrels that inhabit the Skolafossar cliffs.
Prime Puffin Season: Spring and the shorter days between May and August are the months where you can see puffins the most in Iceland. It matches the time of their breeding season when they flock to the island’s amazing coastal plains and large islands which lie just off the coast.
Where to Find Them: Westman Islands, Akureyri, Dyrhólaey area at the south coast tour and Látrabjarg among others are some of the territories with the highest concentration of puffins. Taking a boat tour is an excellent option to see these admired bird life in the wild in their natural habitats.
Puffin Power Facts:
Masters of the Dive: Puffins are remarkable swimmers and divers, effectively using their wings to propel themselves underwater in order to hunt down fish.
Color Coordinated: Typical for their range, puffins naturally sport a black and white feathering but they are most obviously distinguished for their intensely colored beaks during the breeding season. This sharpness is reduced and the bills are become duller after the season ends.
Burrow Buddies: Puffins choose crevices in rocky cliffs or in the soft soil for their burrows. Puffins are a social group character and they have a tendency to form colonies with thousands of puffins in different nest areas.
Fathers of the Year: Puffin parenting is not just one parent’s job, it’s shared. They take each other turns for the incubating egg and they co-work in feeding their chicks through their regurgitated fishes.
Puffin Watching Etiquette:
Respect the Nest: Properly distance yourself from the puffin burrows so as not to disrupt these avian families that dream with feathers.
Silent Safari: Puffins are thinkable loud noises. Whisper and stay still to avoid spooking them. Be aware of the nearby animals.
Leave No Trace: The tourists are asked to follow ethical tourism practices. Please appreciate the environment and recollect all your rubbish.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Encounter:
Being in the midst of puffin’s flickering, falling and flying is something that cannot be easily forgotten. Their weird looks, mysterious ways, and the part that they play in the larger Icelandic environment, make them something unique to watch for any person who loves nature. Therefore, as you go along around Iceland, look out for them and possibly you are going to run into such lovely representatives of the bird kingdom.
I am an experienced tour guide and operator in Iceland, with over 15 years of dedicated service. For the newest updates, check out our blog and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel