The Secret Lives of Puffins

Puffins are notoriously photogenic birds and this coffee-table book of photographs fully lives up to this.  However it only covers the Atlantic Puffin and only in the breeding season with the majority of the photographs being essentially just portraits of single birds.

The text, which is well-written, covers most of the basic information in a series of, rather short, chapters with headings such as:  ‘Puffin places’, ‘Pair formation’, ‘The breeding burrow’.  However the content is little more than basic.  There is for example no discussion of conservation or threats aside from the short last chapter ‘Predators and strife’.  And irritatingly there is not even a list of further reading where one could follow things up, let alone a bibliography.  The review copy has two blocks of pages repeated as well.

As a series of mostly excellent photographs it is fine.  But as a source of information on the Atlantic Puffin, let alone the other two species of puffin, you will need to look elsewhere.

Book reviewed by Diane Ridgley