Powerful Design of the Peculiar Puffin

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If someone describes a black and white bird that spends a lot of time in cold ocean waters, it is easy to assume that the penguin is being described. Not necessarily. Get a few more details, old son, and also know that not all penguins are entirely black and white. This is about a northern Atlantic seabird.

While penguins range in size from six feet to thirteen inches, puffins are about thirteen inches (33 cm). Both spend time in the sea, but puffins are on the water more than in it. 

While most people know about penguins, less known is the puffin, a kind of penguin of the North Atlantic. Its characteristics demonstrate design.
RGBStock / Kevin Tuck
Cute things, kind of clownish looking (sorta like Puddles Pity Party around the eyes). The strategic placement of the black and white demonstrates design, and that beak is used in mating and greeting. Like other seabirds (plus some reptiles and a few fish), they can drink salt water and then throw it off through a salt gland. Puffins are surprisingly intelligent, too.
Swans are often associated with elegance, eagles with majesty, and owls with wisdom, but not every bird seems quite so respectable. Every class has a clown, and birds are no exception.

Puffins look like the quintessential clown of all avians. In fact, their most common nickname is “the clown of the sea.” Everything about them seems ridiculous—at first glance.

To read the rest of listen to the audio by my favorite reader, fly over to "The Puffin Paradox." Bonus: After I had this written and scheduled, ICR published one of their own. Welcome to the party, pal! See "Puffins, Fitted for Living in Sea, Air, and Land."