Atlantic Puffin

Photo: Tomek Niedźwiedź · © all rights reserved

Atlantic puffins nest in burrows on the cliff tops above Vestmanna from April through August and make frequent diving excursions into the water column to depths of up to 60 metres, using their wings to fly underwater in pursuit of sand eels and small fish. Divers at Vestmanna in summer regularly find themselves surrounded by lines of puffins shooting past at speed, their orange legs trailing and wings beating furiously underwater with a sound like rapid clicking. The largest colonies at Vestmanna may contain tens of thousands of individuals, and on calm summer mornings the surface is dotted with rafts of thousands of birds resting between dives.