recently ive been kinda obsessed with birds.. i keep finding new cute birds 🥹 today's bird is the puffin! atlantic puffins spend most of their lives at sea, but every april, the need to breed brings these black and white creatures back to land. these large coastal colonies breed, nest, and raise a single chick per pair, socializing and fishing to feed their offspring. when the young atlantic puffin is ready to leave its nest—at this stage, it has the dark face and small beak of an adult—it does so under cover of darkness to avoid predatory birds, heading for the edge of the cliff. the young bird then takes a leap of faith, half-falling into the sea before flying into the water. although the puffin instinctively knows how to swim, it takes longer for it to learn to dive and fish. while Iceland is home to 60% of the puffin population, they can also be found along the coasts of maine in the united states, norway, and the british isles.