Horned Puffin in the wild
The horned puffin, a cliff-dwelling bird, swims after fishes in offshore waters. It attacks a school of herrings or anchovies from behind. As it swings its head from side to side, grabbing a fish in its bill, the food is stacked like cordwood — with the heads pointed in alternating directions.
The puffin then flies back to the colony to feed the young, which are in a burrow in the ground or rocks of an offshore island. Such offshore islands are usually free of land predators like wolves, coyotes, raccoons, etc. When nesting on the mainland, puffins can survive only on inaccessible cliffs.
Before they are fully independent, young puffins go to sea with their parents, staying in cool northern waters rich in small fish and shrimp. The parents continue to feed them for several weeks. When not breeding on islands and cliffs, puffins are widely dispersed and little is known about them during this time. Most of their life is spent out of the sight of land, bobbing on the surface of the ocean.
The colorful bill of the puffin develops with age. Scientists that study puffins can tell their age by examining the bands developed on the bills. Young puffins have a more typical seabird-like bill similar to that of their relatives, the auks.