A puffin is a seabird of the North Atlantic. It is not a big bird — about the size of a pigeon — but people remember it at once because of its face. In summer its beak is large and painted in bright orange, yellow, and grey-blue, and there is a dark mark by the eye, so English speakers call it the clown of the sea. The body is black on top and white underneath. Puffins spend most of the year out on the ocean and come to land to nest in holes in the earth on sea cliffs. Both parents bring small fish home; that famous beak can hold a whole row of them at once. Though actually, the bird in most pictures is the Atlantic puffin. The Pacific has other kinds, such as the tufted puffin, which look a little different. They are not penguins: puffins can fly. They are also not parrots, even though the Chinese name 海鸚鵡 sounds like a sea parrot. In English, puffin is just the bird. It is not a common metaphor.