This clown of the sea is a comical-looking bird with a dumpy figure, red-rimmed, gleaming yellow eyes, a gaudy bill, and a habit of waddling around, jumping from rock to rock. It nests in much smaller colonies than do most other alcids. Puffins hunt their food -- small fish, shellfish, and shrimp -- in rocky coastal waters and also at sea. They are excellent swimmers and divers. The birds breeding in Maine have only recently been established there as a result of a captive breeding program in which nestlings from Newfoundland were hand-reared on islands, with the hope that they would return to the area as adults.

description 12" (30 cm). A short stocky bird. Black above and white below, with white face and red legs; its remarkable triangular bill is brilliant red and yellow. In fall, horny outer covering of bill is shed, leaving it smaller and duller.

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