Atlantic Puffins | New England By the Numbers

One pair of puffins nesting in the U.S. in 1901 (on Matinicus Rock, Maine) 1,000 pairs (approx.) of puffins now nesting on Maine islands 40 years after the launch of Project Puffin 62 record number of fish carried all at once in a puffin’s beak (average haul is a mere 10 fish) 17.5 ounces: average weight of an Atlantic puffin, the smallest of the four known species of puffins, at just 10 inches tall ONE puffin egg laid per year, tended to by both parents over its 6-week incubation 1973 year Stephen Kress founded Project Puffin (projectpuffin.org), introducing chicks from Newfoundland to Maine’s former island breeding grounds, hoping they’d return to nest as adults 4,800 miles traveled by one puffin tracked by Audubon over the 8 months it spent away from its Maine nesting site $100 cost to “adopt” a puffin through the Audubon Society, thereby supporting seabird restoration efforts worldwide Learn more at: projectpuffin.audubon.org FIVE years: average age at which puffins begin breeding, having returned to their colonies first at age 2 or 3 after rambling about the open ocean 36 age of the oldest known Atlantic puffin

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