At the end of each summer in Iceland, baby puffins, or “pufflings,” leave their parents’ nests and begin their lives. But their initial journey doesn’t always go as planned. In the Vestmannaeyjar islands, pufflings occasionally mistake the bright city lights for moonlight. Since the birds navigate by moonlight, they often end up heading toward the lights and crashing into the town.
Luckily, these little birds don’t have to worry, because the people of the Vestmannaeyjar islands are doing the sweetest thing to help them get back on their feet.
“Every evening, the locals gather for what is known as a ‘puffling watch,’” Icelandic animal lover and Instagrammer Asa Steinars said in a video for The Dodo. “They collect the puffins that they find and place them in a box and keep them safe at their home overnight. Then in the morning, they all head down to the seaside cliffs to release them.”
That’s right — everyone comes together to help these baby birds and make sure they get back to the sky safely.
This year, Steinars and her son, Atlas, participated in the rescue.
“We stayed up late and joined the locals in the search of pufflings,” Steinars wrote in a Facebook post. “It felt like they were raining from the sky, [a] few of them just dropped down right in front of us.”
Later, high on a cliff, Steinars and the Vestmannaeyjar locals gently cradled the birds before tossing them into the air. From there, the pufflings knew exactly what to do.
“This annual tradition brings together the community with a shared mission to help the puffins, allowing the puffins to safely fly away and find their way to the ocean,” Steinars said.
Once the puffins are adults, they’ll return to the Vestmannaeyjar islands. On this journey, they’ll see the bright lights that fooled them so long ago, and perhaps they’ll feel grateful for the kind townspeople who helped them on their way.