Puffin flight

Watching puffins fly is one of the great joys of summer in Iceland. These charismatic little seabirds, with their colourful bills and comical expressions, are often underestimated—until they take to the air. Puffins are built more like torpedoes than gliders, and flying doesn’t come easy to them. Their short wings, perfect for swimming underwater, require an extraordinary amount of effort to keep them airborne.

To fly, puffins beat their wings incredibly fast—up to 400 times per minute. They launch from cliffs or the sea with a running start, flapping furiously to stay aloft. In the air, they move quickly and purposefully, flying low over the ocean or zipping between cliff faces with surprising speed. It’s a blur of movement: wings buzzing, feet trailing behind, bright orange bills slicing through the wind.

Their flight might look frantic, even a little chaotic, but it’s effective. Puffins can reach speeds of over 80 km/h and travel long distances between breeding colonies and feeding grounds. Watching them return to their burrows, wings pumping hard and fish dangling from their bills, is always a heart-lifting sight.

They may not be graceful, but puffins fly with determination, energy, and a charm that’s impossible to ignore.