Penguin vs puffin: not remotely related
Black and white, upright, cold water, fish-eating — and separated by the entire planet plus tens of millions of years. See the penguin guide and Atlantic puffin guide.
Opposite hemispheres
Penguins are exclusively Southern Hemisphere. Puffins are North Atlantic and North Pacific. Their ranges do not overlap anywhere on Earth.
Only one flies
Puffins fly, and fast — beating their wings around 400 times a minute to reach roughly 88 km/h. Penguins gave up flight entirely; their wings are stiff flippers that work only underwater.
Different families
Puffins are auks, family Alcidae. Penguins are Spheniscidae. The resemblance is convergent evolution: both solved pursuit-diving in cold water and arrived at the same countershaded, torpedo-shaped answer.
Size
An Atlantic puffin stands about 20 cm and weighs under half a kilogram. An emperor penguin is about a metre tall and can exceed 20 kg.
That bill
The puffin's bright orange, blue and yellow bill plate is seasonal breeding ornament, shed after the season for a duller version. Penguin bills carry no equivalent display plate.
Nesting
Puffins dig burrows in clifftop turf or use rock crevices, and lay a single egg. Penguins nest on open ground, in scrapes, in burrows, or — in the emperor's case — on their own feet.
The compromise puffins live with
Wings that must work in both air and water cannot be optimal in either. That is why puffins fly with such frantic wingbeats: the same wing is a compromise. Penguins abandoned the compromise, and became far better divers for it.
Read the full Atlantic puffin wildlife guide for IUCN status, population context and sources — or donate to WARN to help fund the partner teams protecting wildlife on the ground.
