28 November 2017
Photographs of puffins taken by
wildlife enthusiasts have provided a clue to why numbers of the birds in
Britain and Ireland have been falling.
RSPB Scotland said images showing
what the birds were feeding chicks suggested that puffins in the Northern Isles
were catching less nutritious prey.
The colonies in Orkney and
Shetland have suffered some of the most serious declines in numbers.
The photos were taken by 602
people, dubbed "Puffarazi" by the charity.
An appeal yielded 1,402 images of
puffins, 517 of which were of birds at sites in Scotland.
Traditionally, puffins feed on a
mixture of fish, with nutritious sandeels making up a high proportion of their
diet.
Early results suggest that the
diet of puffins varies significantly around the UK and Ireland, said RSPB
Scotland.
In Orkney and Shetland, puffins
appeared to be consistently finding smaller prey compared to most other
colonies.
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