Atlantic puffin pair billing, Shetland Islands

© Vince Burton/Minden Picture

Puffins pucker up. Kissing Day

This affectionate pair of Atlantic puffins are picture perfect for International Kissing Day on 6 July. Puffins engage in an endearing form of social behaviour called billing, in which they playfully tap each other’s beaks by swinging their heads from side to side. These two are enjoying the warm season in the far north of the Shetland Islands. In winter, their beaks turn a drab grey, but come spring their colours return, just in time for mating season. With beaks flush with bright colours, the billing begins. The behaviour is generally limited to mated pairs, but sometimes puffins ‘bill’ with neighbours too. Whether you call it billing or kissing, it seems to be the way puffins show they care.

Atlantic puffins, also called common puffins, are the only one of three species of puffin native to the Atlantic. They spend autumn and winter on the open ocean fishing. Come spring and summer, adult puffins return to shore to breed and raise their young in cliffside colonies. Puffin couples often reunite each year at the same nesting site. How they find the exact same spot is a mystery.