Puffin webcam: Watch Farne Islands seabirds live

Our puffin and clifftop webcams stream live every day from dawn until dusk from May until the end of July, offering a front-row seat to the lives of seabirds that breed on the islands. 

These islands are home to 200,000 seabirds, including around 40,000 breeding puffin pairs that journey back to the islands each spring to breed and raise their chicks, called pufflings.

The puffin webcam offers a burrow-side view of puffins, allowing you to get up close to the colony and observe them going about their daily lives: courting, nesting and providing for their young. You can also spot guillemots and other nesting seabirds on our clifftop webcam.

When is puffin season?

April to August is puffin season, when the islands come alive with the sights and sounds of one of the largest puffin breeding colonies in the UK. Puffins leave once their young have fledged, and the young pufflings will spend their next few years at sea before returning to their birthplace on the islands to breed themselves. It's a reminder of how crucial the Farne Islands are to the success of the UK's population of these charismatic little birds. 

Help protect the puffins 

Thanks to our members, donors and supporters, we've been caring for the Farne Islands for more than 100 years. During this time, bird numbers here have soared, making it one of the best places to see seabirds in the UK.

But this fragile ecosystem is facing growing threats from climate change, pollution, habitat erosion and disease.

As the climate and the ecosystems that shape the islands change, we need your support to help us learn more about the reserve and protect its wildlife for future generations.

By donating you'll be helping us to continue caring for this remote stretch of coast, ensuring our dedicated staff and volunteers can carry out vital work year-round, to help keep them a special place for visitors and wildlife. 

Your support helps:

• provide a year-round ranger presence on the Farne Islands – crucial for protecting and monitoring the wildlife, particularly seals, puffins and other seabirds. 
• fund conservation work and monitoring activity such as puffin counts, bird ringing and seal tracking to help monitor trends and feed into national data on populations. 
• inspire future generations about the seabird colonies and the surrounding marine habitat through education and research.
• keep the islands safe and accessible with boardwalk repairs and habitat maintenance.

More about the wildlife in the Farne Islands

A wildife haven only 2.5 miles off the Northumberland Coast, the Farne Islands are made up of clusters of islands forming the Inner and Outer Farne Islands. 

Together, the islands are home to a breeding colony of 200,000 seabirds of 23 different species, including eider duck, guillemot, razorbill, Arctic tern, kittiwake and puffin. 

The islands are designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI) as well as a Special Protected Area (SPA) and Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in recognition of the internationally significant populations of breeding seabirds and grey seals they host each year.

The remote location, lack of ground predators, the availability of food and suitable nesting areas, as well as vital conservation work and research has allowed seabird populations here to thrive. 

Seal pupping sanctuary

As summer turns to autumn, another of the islands’ famous residents take centre stage as seal pupping season gets underway. The Farne Islands are home to one of the largest Atlantic grey seal colonies on the east coast of England, with around 2.5 per cent of the pups born annually in Britain being born on the islands.