To the birds: Project Puffin

I am a big bird nerd. I’ve taken way to many field trips where everybody had binoculars permanently attached to their face to deny it. I’ve watched finches flurry in the Galapagos, penguins plunge in the pacific, nenes nod through national parks in Hawaii and so on and so on.

The only bird I haven’t gotten up close and personal with is the puffin so when I recently discovered Project Puffin, I decided I had to share this seabird resource just in case some of you are harboring a secret bird nerd within.

What’s so special about puffins? Well aside from being extremely endearing, puffins are an important environmental indicator species. Specific to the North Atlantic Ocean, puffins tell us about the health of the ocean and the fish within. When fish populations decline, puffins let us know by bringing less home.

Across Maine, Labrador, Iceland and Scotland, the puffin is a wildlife icon, both cherished and threatened. Initiatives like Project Puffin are quiet environmental champions of this important species and similar efforts exist across the North Atlantic. So, let your bird nerd flag fly and get to know some puffins…read more:

• Project Puffin: Restoring Bird Diversity to the Coast of Maine
• Pay Dirt for Puffin Project
• Project Puffin Visitor Center Rockland Maine
• Boost for ailing puffin islands
• Scottish Seabird Center
• USGS Seabird Research
• National Audubon Society