The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is the unmistakable "sea parrot" of the auk family — a black-and-white seabird, slightly smaller than a jackdaw at 28–34 cm long with a 50–60 cm wingspan, best known for its large, triangular bill marked in bright red, yellow and blue during the breeding season. It has a distinctive white face patch, bright red legs, and identical plumage in both sexes; in winter the bill fades and the face darkens, but the shape remains diagnostic. It breeds along North Atlantic coasts from eastern North America to Norway, the British Isles, Iceland and Svalbard, though it is largely silent at sea, reserving its deep, grunting or growling "arr-arr" calls for inside its nesting burrows.
Puffins bred on Sweden's west coast islands until the 1970s but are now considered extinct as a Swedish breeding species; only occasional individuals and small groups, mostly blown in by storms, are seen off the west coast in winter, chiefly around Bohuslän and the Kattegat, with the nearest active colonies now in southern Norway and the British Isles. The species is classed globally as Vulnerable (VU), driven by predation from invasive mammals at colonies, climate-linked food shortages and bycatch in fishing gear. Puffins spend almost their entire lives at sea, diving to depths of up to 60 metres for small fish such as sandeel, herring and sprat — backward-facing spines on the tongue let a bird carry as many as 20 fish in its bill at once. Breeding pairs dig a burrow 50–200 cm long in soft turf on cliff islands, laying a single egg that both parents incubate; the chick is fed heavily in the burrow before leaving alone, at night, to make its own way to the sea.
Read about this species in Swedish →