Atlantic Puffin Breeding Colonies — Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

About this spectacle

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, just south of St. John's, hosts one of the largest Atlantic Puffin colonies in North America. From late spring through summer, thousands of puffins wheel overhead and crowd the grassy clifftop burrows of four offshore islands. Boat tours bring visitors close to the action — puffins dive-bombing the surface, landing with beakfuls of sand lance, their vivid orange bills and comic waddle instantly recognizable. The air fills with the braying calls of murres and the salt tang of the Atlantic. Humpback whales often breach nearby, and kittiwakes spiral in dense flocks above the colony. The spectacle peaks in June and July when chick-rearing is at its height. Fog, common in Newfoundland summers, can add an eerie, atmospheric quality. The emotional pull is the puffins' sheer improbability — a seabird that looks designed by committee, somehow thriving in dramatic subarctic seas.

When to go

May — Aug, peak Jun — Jul

Getting there

Nearest airport: YYT. Nearest city: St. John's.

Booking options

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