At Canada's Largest Atlantic Puffin Colony, Chicks Are Dying Of Starvation

"Lack of food, warming ocean threaten seabird populations".

"The volunteers who rescue Atlantic puffin chicks — called "pufflings" — knew something was wrong when so few strays from the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula showed up this summer.

The fledglings emerge from their burrow at night to avoid predators, but some are attracted to the lights in the rapidly growing communities on shore. Members of a group called the Puffin Patrol capture the stranded pufflings and release them into the ocean.

"The Puffin Patrol wasn't finding very many birds," said Sabina Wilhelm, a wildlife biologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

"And the birds that were being found were actually very small in body weight.""

Chris O'Neill-Yates reports for CBC News October 1, 2023.