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Atlantic Puffins are medium-sized auks. Both sexes look alike and both have identical breeding and eclipse plumage. During the breeding season the plumage is black, white and grey. The cap, neck and back (mantle, wings) are black, with grey sides of the head. The front and flanks are white to light-grey. In eclipse the parts that are black during the breeding season turn dusky-grey, while the sides of the head also become darker. The brown irises are surrounded by red orbital rings. Their most prominent feature is the parrot-like bill, During the breeding season it has a red tip and dark-grey base, with yellow fringes at the base of the upper mandible and between red and dark-grey areas. They also have a bright yellow-orange loral spot. In eclipse parts of the red tip and the yellow fringes are shed, making the bill more inconspicuous. The legs and feet are bright orange. Juveniles resemble non-breeding adults, but with a noticeably smaller bill.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Atlantic Puffin is available HERE .

Some sources list 3 races of Atlantic Puffins, while others state that gradations are clinal and no races should be considered. The overall range of the Atlantic Puffin encompasses the northern Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea, parts of the adjacent Arctic Ocean and large parts of the coastlines of both oceans. During the breeding season they are northward of a line connecting Maine, USA, with Bretagne, France. Outside the breeding season they extends their range to a lone connecting South Carolina, USA, with Western Sahara in Africa. Outside the breeding season they also enter the Mediterranean Sea.

In Europe Atlantic Puffins breed along the coastlines of the North Atlantic (northern Bretagne, around the British Isles, the islands around Scotland towards Iceland and along the coastline of Norway, including western Svalbard, and the North coast of the Kola peninsula. They do not normally enter the Baltic Sea.

Atlantic Puffins are a marine species that spends much of its life in open water and comes to rocky coasts and islands only to breed.

Race "arctica"