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The UK Bird Atlas

Puffin (Fratercula arctica)Where and when to see it in the UK

Summer visitor · reporting peaks June to July · Auks, Puffins, and Murres · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Puffin (Fratercula arctica)
Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Puffin: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Puffin has been recorded in 760 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (26%) in records to 2026. Summer visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in Scotland, England and Wales. Reporting peaks in June to July.

Conservation status: Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, VU)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
40% or more of visits
High
10% to 40%
Moderate
3% to 10%
Low
under 3%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 1%<1%Low
February 1%<1%Very high
March 9%<1%Low
April 27%<1%Very high
May 60%2%Very high
June 100%4%Very high
July 94%3%Very high
August 27%<1%Low
September 11%<1%Low
October 10%<1%Low
November 12%<1%Low
December 4%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in June

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D41Sea, off Mid and East Antrim100%Very high
HT82Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HU51Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HU55Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HX90Sea, off Orkney Islands100%Very high
HY32Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY33Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY35Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY43Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY52Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.