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Atlantic Puffin Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Calls
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New Brunswick, July 19, 1953Recorded by William W. H. Gunn / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Scotland, June 15, 2019Recorded by Ramit Singal / Macaulay Library
Bill rattle
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Maine, May 31, 2016Recorded by Bob McGuire / Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Calls

Atlantic Puffins are silent at sea. On land males often give a piglike grunt while flicking their head back to attract a female. In their breeding burrows they make a growling call similar to the sound of a muted toy chainsaw.

Compare with Similar Species

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Compare the Horned Puffin Nonbreeding adult  to the Atlantic Puffin

Compare the Horned Puffin Breeding adult to the Atlantic Puffin

Compare the Tufted Puffin Breeding to the Atlantic Puffin

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Species in This Family

Auks, Murres, and Puffins(Order: Charadriiformes, Family: Alcidae)

Rhinoceros Auklet

Atlantic Puffin

Cassin's Auklet

Parakeet Auklet

Marbled Murrelet

Black Guillemot

Pigeon Guillemot

Thick-billed Murre

Ancient Murrelet

Browse Species in This Family

More to Read

Living Bird MagazineNot At Home: Stephen Kress and the Puffins of Eastern Egg Rock, Maine
Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock
Bird AcademySeabird Success Story
Peek Into a Puffin Burrow in Iceland [sounds and video]
Living Bird MagazineThe Icelandic Saga of the Atlantic Puffin, the "Little Brother of the Arctic"
On the Puffin Cliffs of Iceland's Westman Islands [slideshow]

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