Let’s be honest: there are two kinds of people who go to Iceland. The ones who care about waterfalls, glaciers, and tectonic plates. And the ones who really just want to see a puffin.
We were both. But the puffin thing was real. Iceland hosts more Atlantic puffins than anywhere else on Earth — roughly 60 percent of the entire global population nests here every summer. They are preposterous-looking birds, with their oversized orange-and-yellow beaks, penguin tuxedo plumage, and that slightly startled expression they always seem to be wearing. They’re also, somehow, legitimately fascinating once you start learning about what their lives actually look like when they’re not posing for your camera.
Here’s everything we learned — where puffins actually go when they leave Iceland, why they come back, which cliffs to visit, and the unlikely story of how Icelandic children have been catching disoriented pufflings in cardboard boxes every August for generations.
Iceland’s Puffins: The Numbers Are Staggering
Iceland is home to an estimated 8 to 10 million Atlantic puffins during breeding season — roughly a third to nearly two-thirds of the entire world population depending on the year and which count you read. The numbers fluctuate because puffin populations have been declining in parts of their range, and Iceland itself has seen colony contractions in recent decades, particularly in the Westman Islands. Still, when the birds are here, they’re here in biblical numbers.
The species is called Fratercula arctica — Latin for “little friar of the Arctic.” The name comes from their black-and-white coloring, which medieval monks thought resembled monastic robes. The Icelandic word for puffin is lundi. You’ll hear it constantly once you start paying attention to place names: Lundey (“Puffin Island”), found both in Reykjavík’s harbor and off the Snæfellsnes peninsula, is named for its former puffin colonies.
What Puffins Actually Look Like (And Why They Look That Way)
The puffin is built for a life that spends most of its time at sea. The body is stocky — about the size of a pigeon — with short wings and a blunt tail. On land, they stand about 20 centimeters tall. The wingspan is modest, between 47 and 63 centimeters, which means they flap extraordinarily fast, up to 400 beats per minute, to stay airborne. They look hilariously inefficient in the air and genuinely impressive underwater, where they use those same stubby wings to essentially fly through the water at depth.
That beak is the defining feature. In summer, when the birds arrive to breed, the bill is dramatically striped in orange, yellow, and slate blue. It’s actually a layered sheath that gets brighter and more elaborate during breeding season as a signal of fitness to potential mates. Come winter, the outer layers are shed and the bill becomes smaller and drabber — a fact that was not understood by scientists until relatively recently. You could, theoretically, encounter a puffin out on the open ocean in winter and not recognize it as the same bird you photographed on the cliff in July.
Where Puffins Go: Nine Months on the Open Ocean
This is the part that tends to surprise people. Puffins don’t stay in Iceland year-round. They don’t stay anywhere year-round. For roughly nine months out of twelve, Atlantic puffins live entirely on the open ocean, rarely if ever touching land. They sleep on the water, eat from the water, and travel thousands of miles across the North Atlantic without any fixed address.
Tracking studies using geolocators — tiny devices attached to birds’ legs — have revealed that Icelandic puffins spend their winters dispersed across the North Atlantic, often far from shore. Some birds tracked from Iceland have been found wintering in waters off the coast of Morocco and the Canary Islands. Others stay farther north. The precise wintering areas vary by colony and by individual bird, and the full picture of puffin winter movements is still being mapped.
At sea, they dive to catch small fish — primarily sand eels, sprats, and herring — using their wings for propulsion rather than their feet. They can dive to depths of around 60 meters (200 feet) and hold their breath for up to a minute. The famous image of a puffin standing on a cliff with a beak full of fish isn’t just cute — it represents a remarkable feat of coordination. The bird can hold one fish crosswise in its bill using its spiny tongue and palate while catching more, stacking up its load before flying back to feed a chick.
The Return: April Through August in Iceland
Each spring, sometime between late April and mid-May, the puffins come home. After months of solitary ocean wandering, they return to the same cliffs where they nested before — often the exact same burrow, with the same mate. Puffins are monogamous and tend to breed with the same partner for life, which can span 20 years or more. The reunion, when it happens, involves a behavior called “billing” — the pair faces each other and rattles their beaks together rapidly, as if having an enthusiastic conversation in a language only they understand.
They nest in burrows dug into cliff tops and grassy headlands. Both parents take turns incubating the single egg (puffins almost always lay just one) for about 39 to 43 days. When the chick, called a puffling, hatches, both parents spend the next 38 to 44 days making repeated fishing runs to feed it. Then, in mid to late August, the puffling is essentially abandoned. Left alone in the burrow, it burns through its fat reserves over several days until it’s lean enough to fly. Then it heads to sea — and won’t return to land again for two to three years, until it’s mature enough to breed.
Where to See Puffins in Iceland
Timing matters enormously. Puffins are only present from approximately late April through mid-August. If you’re visiting Iceland outside that window — say, for the Northern Lights or a winter landscape trip — you will not see puffins in the wild, full stop. They’re at sea. Every single one of them. If autumn is your window, our fall packing list for Iceland covers what actually keeps you dry out on those headlands.
The major puffin viewing spots in Iceland include:
Dyrhólaey Peninsula — The dramatic basalt arch headland just west of Reynisfjara is one of the most accessible puffin colonies on the south coast. Puffins nest in the grass-topped cliffs and can often be seen perched in the open during summer. The viewing area at the top of the promontory puts you eye-level with birds that have essentially zero fear of humans.
Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) — The Westman Islands, a short ferry ride from the south coast, host the world’s largest Atlantic puffin colony. Estimates range from 800,000 to over a million nesting pairs on Heimaey and the surrounding smaller islands. If you go in summer, puffins will literally be everywhere — on cliffs, on rooftops, waddling across parking lots.
Látrabjarg Cliffs (Westfjords) — The westernmost point of Iceland and Europe features massive seabird cliffs where puffins nest by the hundreds of thousands alongside razorbills, guillemots, and gannets. Getting there requires a serious detour into the Westfjords, but the scale is extraordinary.
Ingólfshöfði Cape — A remote headland on the south coast accessible only by tractor transport across tidal sands, Ingólfshöfði hosts a puffin colony and offers guided walks during breeding season. It’s also a major arctic tern breeding ground, which makes for an interesting visit (they will dive-bomb you).
The Puffling Rescue: Iceland’s Most Charming Annual Tradition
Every August in the Westman Islands, something strange and wonderful happens. Pufflings — the young birds making their maiden flight to the sea — are supposed to navigate by the light of the moon and stars on the horizon. But in towns, streetlights, car headlights, and window glow create false horizons that disorient the young birds and send them inland instead of seaward. Disoriented pufflings crash-land in parking lots, gardens, and streets across Heimaey.
For generations, Westman Islands children have run what is effectively a puffling rescue operation every August night. Armed with cardboard boxes and flashlights, they collect the confused birds, check them for injuries, and the next morning, take them to the shore and toss them gently skyward toward the sea. Local children are taught that catching a puffling and releasing it safely to the ocean is simply something you do. The tradition has spread awareness of puffin conservation in a way that no educational campaign could replicate — in the Westman Islands, puffins aren’t wildlife abstractions. They’re neighbors you help home.
Puffin Conservation: A Species Under Pressure
For all its numbers, the Atlantic puffin is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Populations have declined significantly in Iceland — the Westman Islands colony, once estimated at up to 1.1 million pairs, has contracted notably over recent decades. The primary driver appears to be changing ocean conditions that reduce the availability of sand eels and other prey fish, linked to both climate-driven shifts in ocean temperatures and overfishing. When food is scarce, adults may fail to feed chicks adequately, and colonies can produce virtually zero fledglings in bad years.
Iceland banned puffin hunting in the Westman Islands in 2020 after years of declining harvest numbers that had already made the activity largely self-regulating. The country has also invested in monitoring programs to track colony health. Conservation biologists note that puffins are long-lived birds — they can survive for 20-plus years — which means existing adults may persist for decades even when breeding is unsuccessful. But a sustained period of low recruitment will eventually be felt. The birds that land on those cliffs in summer are more valuable, and more precarious, than their numbers might suggest.
Why Puffins Hit Different in Iceland
Part of it is the setting. Watching a puffin waddle to the edge of a cliff at Dyrhólaey, launch itself into the air with that frantic wing-beat, and disappear toward the sea is somehow more affecting when you’re standing on the same basalt headland where the Reynisdrangar stacks rise from the surf below and the whole south coast stretches out behind you. Iceland has a way of making wildlife feel genuinely wild — not managed, not staged, just birds doing bird things at the edge of the world.
Part of it is also that puffins are just objectively funny-looking in a way that makes you root for them. They’re ungainly in the air, surprisingly graceful underwater, and apparently excellent partners and parents. They come back to the same burrow every year. They take turns on the egg. They carry fish back to their chick in a beak that looks borrowed from a cartoon toucan. When you learn that the young birds spend their first two to three years entirely at sea before returning to land, you realize you’re looking at an animal that’s spent years out there alone, navigating the open Atlantic by instinct, before finally coming home to the cliff where it was born.
That’s a pretty good story for a bird the size of a pigeon.
Practical Information
When to go: Late April through mid-August. Peak viewing is June and July when colonies are most active. By mid-August, adult birds begin to leave; by September, virtually all puffins have departed Iceland for winter at sea.
Best viewing spots from the south coast: Dyrhólaey peninsula (free, self-guided, short walk to cliff viewpoint), Reynisfjara area access road. Both are easily combined with a Reynisfjara beach visit — just check that the puffin area is open; Dyrhólaey sometimes closes the road to the top for sheep farming.
Westman Islands day trip: A ferry from Landeyjahöfn on the south coast (about 35 minutes) puts you in the heart of the world’s largest puffin colony. Worth a full day if you’re traveling in summer.
What we missed: We were in Iceland in October — a full two months after the last puffins had already left for winter. If you want puffins, plan your Iceland trip for summer. Don’t be us.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the best time to see puffins in Iceland?
Mid-May through late July is peak puffin season in Iceland. The birds arrive from mid-April onward, but colonies are most active — and most photogenic, with adults making constant fishing runs — in June and July. By mid-August the birds begin departing. By September they’re gone entirely until the following spring.
Where is the best place to see puffins near Reykjavík?
The closest puffin viewing to Reykjavík is Lundey (“Puffin Island”) in Faxaflói Bay, accessible by boat tour from the old harbor. In summer, boat tours run specifically for puffin watching and offer close-up views. The Westman Islands — a one-day ferry trip from the south coast — offer the most dramatic puffin experience and are roughly three hours from Reykjavík by car to the ferry terminal.
Do puffins live in Iceland year-round?
No. Puffins are only in Iceland from approximately late April through mid-August for breeding season. For the rest of the year — roughly nine months — they live entirely on the open North Atlantic Ocean, sleeping on the water and diving for fish. They don’t return to land until the following spring.
What do puffins eat?
Small fish, primarily sand eels, sprats, and herring. They dive to catch fish using their wings underwater, and can hold multiple fish crosswise in their bills — using a spiny tongue and palate structure — so they can continue catching fish while already holding a full load. The record documented catch was 62 sand eels in one beak at once.
Are puffins endangered?
The Atlantic puffin is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, not endangered but with declining populations in several parts of its range including Iceland’s Westman Islands colony. The main threats are reduced prey fish availability linked to changing ocean temperatures and overfishing. Iceland banned hunting of puffins in the Westman Islands in 2020.
What is a puffling?
A puffling is a baby puffin — the chick that hatches from the single egg a puffin pair lays each breeding season. After hatching, pufflings are fed by both parents for about six weeks, then left alone in the burrow. They make their way to sea on their own and spend the next two to three years entirely at sea before returning to land to breed for the first time.
The Bottom Line
If you’re going to Iceland in summer, plan time for puffins — specifically, build in a stop at Dyrhólaey or a day trip to the Westman Islands. These birds are genuinely extraordinary: technically vulnerable as a species, but still present in Iceland in numbers that can feel almost implausible when you’re standing on a cliff watching hundreds of them come and go. They spend most of their lives completely alone on the open ocean, navigate back to the same burrow every spring, raise one chick at a time with remarkable dedication, and molt into a completely different-looking bird every winter.
Go in summer. Bring a long lens. And if you’re ever in the Westman Islands in August, ask a kid where they’re taking the pufflings that night.
Read next: Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach: Iceland’s Most Dangerous Beach and Why It’s Worth It Anyway
Keep Reading: More Iceland
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach: Iceland’s Most Dangerous Beach and Why It’s Worth It Anyway
Iceland Glacier Ice Cave: What It’s Actually Like to Stand Inside a 10,000-Year-Old Glacier
The Golden Circle, Iceland: Geysers, a 1,000-Year-Old Parliament, and Europe’s Most Powerful Waterfall
What We’d Do Differently
We visited in late July and saw puffins at Dyrhólaey — plenty of them, though getting close enough for a good photo requires a longer lens than we brought. On a return visit, we’d rent or bring a 300-400mm telephoto setup and plan for early morning when the birds are most active. We’d also try to make it out to the Westman Islands for a night — Heimaey feels like the kind of place that rewards staying rather than day-tripping.
More Iceland from BenThere Travel
Planning your Iceland trip? These posts cover the rest of the Ring Road and the highlights we remember most:
- Iceland Ring Road: A 10-Day Adventure Guide From a Couple Who Actually Drove It
- The Golden Circle, Iceland: Geysers, a 1,000-Year-Old Parliament, and Europe’s Most Powerful Waterfall
- Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach: Iceland’s Most Dangerous Beach
- Skógafoss: The Waterfall, the Viking Treasure, and the 527 Steps Most Visitors Skip
- Iceland Glacier Ice Cave: What It’s Actually Like to Stand Inside a 10,000-Year-Old Glacier
- Northern Lights in Iceland: What We Learned From Searching Every Night
- Iceland Travel Costs: What We Actually Spent and How to Budget Honestly
- Driving in Iceland: F-Roads, Gas Stations & Safety Tips
More from the shopBrowse the full travel wall art collection — canvas prints and posters of Iceland’s south coast, Paris and Eilean Donan.
Ben & Nicole Mathews
We’re based in St. Augustine, Florida, sharing the places we’ve actually been — from our home turf to corners of the U.S. and abroad. Ben is an attorney and a retired Air Force JAG (22 years), and a private pilot, which is why aviation and military history shows up here too.