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29 October 2026

Puffins are usually admired for their colourful beaks and their slightly comic appearance. But observations of these seabirds have revealed a behaviour that makes them more intriguing than their familiar looks suggest.

In rare recorded instances, Atlantic puffins have been observed using small sticks to scratch themselves. Scientists saw the birds holding a stick and rubbing it against their bodies, apparently to relieve an itch.

Tool use is often associated with animals such as chimpanzees, crows and certain parrots. Seeing similar behaviour in a seabird is striking, particularly because it had not been widely documented in puffins before these observations.

There is an important qualification: a few observations cannot establish how common this behaviour is or exactly how deliberately the birds select and use the sticks. Scientists must distinguish purposeful tool use from actions that may have occurred incidentally.

That uncertainty does not diminish the discovery. It reminds us how much remains to be learned about animals whose lives we may think we already understand.

Wildlife still holds many small surprises. Sometimes a discovery does not involve finding a new species, but watching a familiar one closely enough to notice something unexpected.

A puffin lifting a twig may seem like a modest event. Yet it offers a lesson in observation: familiarity can make us overlook the unusual, while patient attention allows the ordinary world to reveal something new.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com