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