PUFFIN

Tracing part of the annual cycle of a favorite northern bird, a naturalist takes an avian couple from puffins to puffling parents.

Declaring puffins to be his “absolute favorite” seabird, Jenkins begins with their return to nesting areas in spring, where they reunite (when they can) with mates, clack beaks, and waddle off to inspect former burrows in sea cliffs. After driving off squatters and doing a bit of housecleaning, male and female puffins then share nesting duties until their huge single egg hatches. Six or so weeks later, the drab chick appears and, if conditions are right, matures and eventually flaps off to survive (if it can) and find a mate of its own. The author enlarges on embedded facts about puffin diet and predators with backmatter on geographical distribution and maturation; along with portraits of the three species of puffin, Desmond supplies fetching but realistically detailed views of Atlantic puffins flying, perched on a grassy hillside, and winging underwater—with, as evidently required in all picture books about these photogenic birds, the obligatory row of small fish hanging from its colorful beak. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A fond first intro with no anthropomorphizing.