Atlantic puffin chicks are starving as warming seas shift the distribution of sand eels, their primary prey fish, away from traditional nesting colonies.
Puffin chicks that receive insufficient fish during the critical growth period die slowly from starvation in burrows where parents deposit them. Adults that repeatedly return to the burrow with inadequate or inappropriate prey fish experience prolonged unsuccessful feeding attempts. The gradual failure of breeding colonies removes the experiential welfare of successful parenting across bird lifetimes.