Puffins (not to mention their CGI close relatives, the Porgs in Star Wars: The Last Jedi) are some of the most recognised of all birds. Sometimes known as ‘sea parrots’, they are black and white, with bright orange legs and webbed feet, but it’s that colourful, striped blue, red and yellow bill that really makes them stand out from the crowd.
Flamborough Head in Yorkshire is one of the best places in the country for puffin watching, as well as one of the few places where you can easily spot them from on land. The Flamborough Cliffs nature reserve, 30-metre-high sheer chalk cliffs between Filey and Bridlington, is home to the largest mainland seabird breeding colony in the UK. The cliffs are host to internationally significant numbers of breeding seabirds including fulmars, herring gulls, kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, and 3,000 puffins.
Late spring visitors to our shores
Puffins spend their autumn and winter at sea, when their recognisable facial and beak colours fade to a smudgy grey. Their colours only come in for the breeding season, when puffins find a lifelong mate and make their nest in burrows on cliffs and islands around the coast. There they will stay for a few weeks from late spring while they raise a single puffling (a baby puffin). That young puffin, once fledged, may stay out at sea for up to six years before it first returns to the cliffs to breed.
David Craven, East Regional Manager for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), says: “The return of puffins to Flamborough Cliffs is one of my favourite times of year, and a spectacle I think everyone should enjoy at least once! They’re such characterful birds with their bright beaks and tuxedo-like markings, whizzing to and from the cliffs, such a joyous sight to see – and a fantastic and accessible way to get into wildlife-watching more broadly.”
Puffins’ food sources decline due to climate change
A puffin’s favourite meal is sand eels: small, silver, eel-like fish that make up around 90% of their diet. But the climate crisis warming our oceans means these cold-water fish are on the decline and Craven warns: “As the North Sea warms, our puffins are having to travel further and further to find sand eels – their main food source, which is only found in cooler water. Although the colony at Flamborough is holding steady at the moment, it is only a matter of time, if things don’t change, before we start to see our puffins struggling.”
Join in with the YWT Puffin Festival
June is the perfect time to spot puffins, just a short walk along a clifftop path from North Landing. On 7 and 8 June 2025, you can be part of YWT ’s seventh annual Puffin Festival, which promises to be their biggest and most entertaining yet. Join YWT at North Landing, for the festival’s Puffin HQ, where information, parking and refreshments are available.
Events include guided walks or even boat trips to watch the birds, photography sessions to get the most out of your wildlife snaps, workshops and creative activities. Some sessions require pre-booking, but there are plenty that can be booked on the day or are drop-in activities. More information about the full range of events and activities, together with booking details, is available on YWT’s Puffin Festival webpage. There’s also an online competition to win a fantastic distillery tour with Spirit of Yorkshire.
Supporting YWT’s Puffin Festival helps them to protect the puffins’ future – and you can find out how you can take action to protect puffins too.
Even if you can’t get to the coast for the festival, there’s plenty to enjoy online including a virtual tour of the cliffs, a downloadable free pack full of puffin facts, home activities, advice on where to see puffins, and the chance to buy gifts and enter competitions.
Article based on a press release
