Tufted Puffin

Last week, we asked the question of how fast a puffin can fly and how many times they can flap their wings per minute. These birds aren’t built for speed, but surprisingly, these little birds top out at 55 miles per hour. They also flap their wings at a rate of 400 times per minute.

To put their flying ability into perspective, the average duck reaches flight speeds of 70 miles per hour, but only needs to flap its wings 180 times a minute to do so.

A puffin’s main talent is swimming. These birds can dive to depths of 200 feet, holding their breathe for nearly a minute, and fit over 10 little fish in their mouth at once!

Here’s a video of their swimming talent in action. Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s trivia. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s question to test your fish identification knowledge.