Puffin Pair

On one of my evening visits to Látrabjarg Cliffs, in the Wesfjords of Iceland, at the start of June 2025, I was watching a pair of Puffins sitting together on small outcrop.

It was late evening, and still in the (overcast) golden hour and the way these two were sitting reminded me of a bickering couple.

With Puffins, it is quite hard to tell the sexes apart as they have the same plumage; but generally speaking, the males are slightly bigger than the females. So I would infer that the male is on the left and the female the right.

This is a beautiful case of anthropomorphism, where it looks like they have argued, and then make up.

The billing is a bonding ritual, that is done to reinstate the bond between the pair (Puffins are monogamous) when they arrive back at their nest site after spending the winter at sea, apart, and then continues through the breeding season to maintain the bond.