Hello everyone,
I hope you're doing well!

As mentioned in the previous issue, the newsletter is now hosted on Kessel, a French, free, and eco-friendly service. I hope you'll enjoy this new setup just as much as the previous content!

At the beginning of May, we’ll be setting off on a little trip through the south of France, starting from Slovenia. For about a month, I’ll be away from my equipment and won't be able to create hand-painted birds. However, if time allows, I’ll try to share a few episodes featuring birds drawn on my tablet.

In the meantime, please expect a little break in the usual newsletter schedule until mid-June. Thank you so much for your understanding 🙏

This week, I wanted to tell you about an adorable and very distinctive bird, often nicknamed the "clown of the seas": the Atlantic Puffin!

🐧 Today's Bird: The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), the Little Clown of the Seas

🎨 How does it look like?

Impossible to mistake it for another bird: with its black and white plumage, dark-ringed eyes, and especially its brightly colored beak in shades of orange, blue, and yellow, the Atlantic Puffin is nicknamed the "sea parrot" or the "clown of the oceans" 🎭🌊.
It has a lifespan of 25 to 30 years.

🪽 In flight, its small wings beat at an incredible speed — up to 400 beats per minute! — to keep its stout little body aloft.

It also has a very special call, look here !

🏝 Where does it live?

The puffin spends almost its entire life at sea!
It only returns to land to nest, mainly in the North Atlantic: Iceland, Norway, Scotland... and a few precious colonies in Brittany, France.

📍 A small map will help you visualize where it lives!

🐟 What does it eat?

An outstanding diver!
Underwater, the puffin hunts small fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, using its wings like flippers.
Its magical beak, equipped with tiny spines, allows it to carry up to 20 fish at once, perfectly lined up like a bouquet 🐟💐.
(Fun fact: the record for the most fish carried at once is an incredible 80 small fish!)

🥚 How does it reproduce?

In spring, puffin pairs faithfully reunite at their nesting site.
They dig a burrow (yes, really!) or settle into a rocky crevice to lay just one egg per season.
Once the chick is ready, it leaps into the sea on its own, often at night, to begin its life as a daring seabird adventurer 🌙🌊. Pretty brave, don't you think?

🚨 Endangered specie 😢

Unfortunately, the Atlantic Puffin is now listed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List.

The main threats are:

• Climate change (the fish it depends on are becoming scarcer, as rising water temperatures drive them farther from the coasts)

• Industrial fishing 🎣

• Plastic pollution and oil spills 🛢

In Brittany especially, the colonies are fighting for their survival. 😢
One of the last colonies is found on the Sept-Îles archipelago, protected by the LPO (League for the Protection of Birds).
This nature reserve was the first protected area in France created specifically to defend the Atlantic Puffin, after its population decline at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Atlantic Puffin has even become the emblem of the LPO, symbolizing their commitment to protecting seabirds and their habitats.

(if you buy an article or a wallpaper featuring the Puffin, I will donate all profits to this association.).

🤭 Funny anecdotes

• In Iceland, young puffins often get lost in the city during their first flight, attracted by artificial lights. Every year, locals organize collective rescues, using little baskets to return these budding explorers safely to the sea! 🛟
  🔗 Watch the super heartwarming ARTE documentary here (30 min)

• Despite its plump and clumsy appearance on land and at sea, underwater the puffin is a true torpedo: it can dive to depths of over 60 meters to fish!

• In winter, its beautiful, colorful beak turns dull and part of its horny outer layer falls off, only to regrow bright and vibrant in the spring... just in time for mating season 💘.

• Another fun fact: during courtship, puffins sometimes give each other "kisses" by clashing their beaks together in a behavior called billing. 💕🐧

🎥 BBC video on the puffin (8min)

I hope you enjoyed these fun facts about the Atlantic Puffins!

Feel free to download the illustration as a mobile wallpaper (it's free!)

Let’s go buy this Tote Bag on TPOP !

🕊️ I need your help to make Berthelot fly further! 🙏

🎁 Support me by visiting the Berthelot Shop or by downloading a mobile wallpaper!

You'll find a gallery of all the birds I've drawn since the start of the project. Every purchase will be converted into a donation for bird protection associations.

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