A puffin is a small seabird with a colorful beak that lives along cold ocean coastlines in the Northern Hemisphere. Puffins are famous for their striking appearance: they have black and white feathers like a penguin (though they're not closely related), bright orange feet, and a thick, triangular beak that turns brilliant orange, yellow, and red during breeding season. This rainbow-colored beak has earned them the nickname “sea parrot.”

Puffins are excellent swimmers who spend most of their lives at sea, using their wings to “fly” underwater while hunting small fish like herring and sand eels. They can dive over 200 feet deep and carry multiple fish crosswise in their beaks at once, with a specially adapted tongue that holds the catch against the roof of their mouth. Unlike penguins, puffins can also fly through the air, though they need to flap their short wings incredibly fast to stay airborne.

These birds nest in colonies on rocky cliffs and islands, digging burrows in the soil or taking over abandoned rabbit holes. The Atlantic puffin is the species most people picture, common in Iceland, Norway, and parts of North America. Baby puffins are called pufflings.