Huffy Puffins
In June 2025 I went back to Borgarfjörður Eystri (about 2 hours drive from Egilsstaðir), to spend some quality time with my favourite birds, the Atlantic Puffin. There is a colony on a small outcrop in the harbour, and around 10,000 pairs of puffins nest there, with the stairs and viewing platforms allowing unparalleled access to these beautiful little birds.
I parked myself on one of the platforms, noise cancelling headphones in (Puffins don’t make a lot of noise, so I wasn’t missing anything), and tried to block out the jostle and exclaiming of the coach parties that came and went around me. It gets busy here, but there are spots of tranquility between tours and arrival / departure. The easy access to the Puffins means people will come in, snap their cameras and phones for 15 minutes and then head off. But finding a spot and just watching gives you amazing access to Puffin behaviour.
I noticed three Puffins putting their heads together, and focused in on them.
It didn’t take long for a squabble to break out. Two of the three Puffins started to face (beak) off, and then, like a schoolyard fight, the Puffins lounging around nearby, came in to watch. Mentally I could hear the “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!..” chant the children in the playground used to start when things kicked off.
It could have been a fight over real-estate, as there was a burrow involved, or it could have been a fight over a mate; Puffins are monogamous, but spend the winter apart at sea. The pair will re-unite at their nest site in May and will bond by ‘billing’, rubbing their beaks together. However, if one of the pair does not make it back, the other will find another mate. If the original mate makes it back, just late, the new mate will be unceremoniously dumped.
One of the fighting Puffins has a darker face, it could be (not an expert), that this is a recent arrival; winter colouration is very different to the mating plumage, and faces and beaks are dark for the rest of the year. So this could be a fight over a mate.
