INTERNATIONAL BIRD OF MYSTERY

摘要

Of course you know puffins. Pint-sized and bright-beaked, with a rolling walk that Charlie Chaplin would have envied. Clownish to some but recognised by millions, the Atlantic puffin is the most popular seabird in the northern hemisphere. Yet it's a bird with a secret life. Because the images are so familiar - adults flying in to feed chicks with beaks glistening with rows of small fry, close-ups of those spectacular bills resplendent in hues of red, blue-grey and cream - we think we know all about Fratercula arctica. The reality is that we don't. Puffins are very difficult to watch throughout a lot of their lives. For most of the year they stay far out to sea beyond sight of land, unless they fall victim to winter storms and get washed ashore.