This is a hatched puffin egg. The beauty of it is mostly in tact. A beautiful speckled puffin egg:

(Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28190483@N07/3650595298/)

Both parents take care of the puffin eggs. The male puffins build a nest for the female. Then the female lays generally 1-5 eggs. Puffin parents are very protective guarding their puffin eggs diligently until they hatch approximately 40-43 days later.

NATIONAL WILDLIFE MAGAZINE Aug/Sep 1994, vol. 32 no. 5 The Puffins Keep Their Secrets By Les Line These small seabirds delight human visitors to rocky islands in north seas, yet remain biological mysteries.

The lore of the Atlantic puffin, a species that ranks among everyone’s favorite seabirds, includes an enduring story about how parent birds starve their single nearly grown chicks until hunger motivates the youngsters to leave the security of clifftop burrows and, in the dark of night, leap to the pounding sea.

A famous Welsh birdman, Ronald Lockley, discovered this behavior in the 1930s while studying puffins on the island of Skokholm off Wales. When matchsticks that he lodged…

Read the rest of this article (IT IS WORTH THE READ REALLY!!!) and more National Wildlife Magazine features online.