Atlantic puffins—clownish seabirds with colorful bills and waddling gaits—had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a catastrophic 2021, said scientists who monitor the birds. The news flies in the face of environmental trends, as scientists have said warming waters off New England jeopardize the birds because that reduces the kind of fish they need to feed their chicks.
A biologist holds a healthy Atlantic puffin chick on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2023. Scientists who monitor seabirds said Atlantic puffins had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a bad 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty An Atlantic puffin chick is held by a biologist before being measured and banded on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2023. Scientists who monitor seabirds said Atlantic puffins had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a bad 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukatyspeaks to the resiliency of seabirds, said Bill Sydeman, president and chief scientist of the Farallon Institute, a marine preservation organization based in California.
The Maine puffin population once dwindled to only about 70 pairs on tiny Matinicus Rock. Hunters who pursued the birds for their meat and feathers had nearly wiped them out by the early 1900s. Stephen Kress, an Audubon ornithologist, sought to grow puffin colonies starting in the 1970s by relocating chicks from Canada to Eastern Egg Rock, another tiny island.
A biologist holds a small fish dropped by an adult puffin near its nesting burrow on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2023. Scientists who monitor seabirds said Atlantic puffins had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a bad 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
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