Maine is the only state on the eastern seaboard where Atlantic puffins nest. Every summer, somewhere between late May and mid-August, thousands of these stocky, orange-billed birds come ashore on a handful of remote islands to raise their chicks. By mid-August they are gone, back to the open North Atlantic for the rest of the year.
The colonies are on islands you cannot drive to, and most you cannot walk on. That is partly by design. A century and a half ago, Atlantic puffins had been hunted off nearly every Maine island they once claimed. The restoration that brought them back is one of the more remarkable conservation stories on the East Coast, and the tours that get you out to see them are woven into that story. This guide covers every colony, every proven tour option, and everything you need to know to make the trip worth the early wake-up.
The Puffin Colonies in Maine
Machias Seal Island
This is the premier puffin destination in Maine, and the only island in the state where visitors can actually step ashore during nesting season. The island sits in the lower Bay of Fundy, off Cutler in Downeast Maine, and hosts the largest puffin colony accessible from the Maine coast, along with razorbills, Arctic terns, and common murres.
Machias Seal Island is also the subject of a long-running sovereignty dispute between Canada and the United States, a quirk that shapes how the tours work. In practice, the island is managed by the Canadian Wildlife Service, which operates the lighthouse and enforces strict daily visitor limits. Only a small number of people may land each day, split between tours from the U.S. side and the Canadian side, and only a limited number of operators hold landing permits.
From the U.S. side: Bold Coast Charter Company departs from Cutler Harbor, Maine, and is the operator most Maine visitors use to land on the island. Spaces sell out quickly after reservations open in the spring. Book well ahead. This tour is consistently sold out for much of the season before most people start planning.
From the Canadian side: Sea Watch Tours departs from Grand Manan, New Brunswick, and holds Canadian landing access. Their reservation calendar also opens in spring.
Once ashore, visitors are guided to enclosed wooden blinds positioned within a few feet of active burrows. Puffins at Machias Seal Island show little fear of people and will walk close to the blinds. It is as close as you can get to a wild Atlantic puffin without a research permit.
The Machias Seal Island landing tours sell out their seasons quickly after reservations open. If you do not get a spot, the Eastern Egg Rock boat cruises are genuinely excellent alternatives, and you will still see puffins at close range from the water.
Eastern Egg Rock
Eastern Egg Rock, in Muscongus Bay off the Pemaquid Peninsula, is the heart of the Project Puffin restoration story (see below) and the most visited puffin colony in Maine. It is a boat-cruise destination: visitors circle the island on a boat while puffins, terns, and guillemots fly around the vessel and gather on the water. You do not land. The island is protected during nesting season, with access restricted to permitted researchers.
Two well-established operators run regular cruises to Eastern Egg Rock from late May through mid-August:
Hardy Boat Cruises departs from New Harbor on the Pemaquid Peninsula and runs a puffin watch cruise narrated by Audubon naturalists who explain the restoration history and help identify the birds.
Cap’n Fish’s Cruises departs from Boothbay Harbor and offers a puffin cruise as well as a combined whale-and-puffin trip that visits Eastern Egg Rock and then heads offshore to whale feeding grounds. Both options carry naturalists on board.
Binoculars make a real difference on these cruises. Eastern Egg Rock is a low, rocky island and the birds are concentrated on and around it, but you will want to pick out individual puffins from the platform of a moving boat. Our guide to the best binoculars for Maine wildlife covers several options chosen specifically for birding and wildlife watching on the water.
Petit Manan Island
Petit Manan is part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The island is closed to public access during the nesting season to protect nesting seabirds, but several tour boats pass close enough during summer for excellent offshore viewing.
Tour operators out of Bar Harbor run puffin, lighthouse, and seabird cruises that visit the waters around Petit Manan from late spring through summer. The route passes the Petit Manan Lighthouse, one of the tallest in Maine, and the surrounding waters host puffins, razorbills, guillemots, and terns. This is the easiest departure region for visitors staying near Bar Harbor or Acadia, with no long drive Downeast required.
Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge
Seal Island lies well offshore in outer Penobscot Bay and is closed to the public during nesting season. The Audubon Seabird Institute re-established a puffin colony here in the early 1990s, adding it to the growing Gulf of Maine recovery effort. It is a pelagic birding destination, best reached on organized offshore boat trips rather than standard day tours.
Matinicus Rock
Matinicus Rock sits in the outer reaches of Penobscot Bay and holds one of Maine’s most significant combined razorbill and Atlantic puffin colonies. Like Seal Island, it is closed to the public during the nesting season. Birding trips that venture into outer Penobscot Bay may pass within viewing distance. It is not a regular stop on standard tour itineraries, so sightings here are a bonus, not a reliable plan.
The Project Puffin Story
In the early 1800s, Atlantic puffins nested on more than a dozen Maine islands. Market hunters killed them for feathers and meat through the rest of the century, and by 1900 only a remnant colony survived, at Matinicus Rock.
In 1973, a young ornithology instructor named Steve Kress, working at the Audubon camp on Hog Island in Muscongus Bay, decided to try something that had never been done: restore a seabird colony to an island where the birds had been wiped out. The target was Eastern Egg Rock.
The method was social attraction. Kress and his team brought puffin chicks, called pufflings, from a thriving colony in Newfoundland and hand-raised them on Eastern Egg Rock until they fledged. The idea was that birds imprint on where they were raised and return there to breed when they are old enough. For years nothing happened. Then, in 1977, puffins began returning. By 1981, the first pairs had nested. Today, Eastern Egg Rock hosts a flourishing colony, and the techniques Kress developed have been used to restore seabird colonies around the world.
The Audubon Seabird Institute now supports nesting seabird colonies across the Gulf of Maine. Maine as a whole hosts more than 1,000 pairs of nesting Atlantic puffins each summer, all of them on islands that were largely empty within living memory.
The Project Puffin Visitor Center is on Main Street in downtown Rockland. It runs seasonally in summer and fall with live camera feeds from the seabird islands, exhibits on the restoration work, and staff who can answer questions about current colony conditions. Worth the stop before or after your tour. Rockland is a good lunch town anyway. Check current hours before you go.
When Puffins Are in Maine
Puffins are present from roughly late April through mid-August. The practical viewing window for boat tours is late May through mid-August, with June and July being peak. Here is how the season breaks down:
- Late April to mid-May: Puffins return from the open ocean and begin courtship. Tours are not yet widely running.
- Late May through June: Tours are in full operation. Puffins are nesting and increasingly active onshore. One of the best periods.
- July: Peak. Birds are feeding chicks, activity is constant, and tours run regularly. Book well ahead.
- Early to mid-August: Pufflings are preparing to fledge and adults begin thinning out. Still good viewing, but the season is winding down.
- After mid-August: Puffins head back to the open Atlantic. Tours end.
Go on a weekday in late June or early July if you can. Weekend boats fill up. Weekday departures are less crowded, and the birds are not watching the calendar.
What You Will See Besides Puffins
On any of these tours, puffins share the islands with a full cast of seabirds worth knowing before you go:
- Razorbills: Black-and-white alcids that look like small penguins with a thick, blunt bill. They often fly alongside the boat.
- Common murres: Slim, upright alcids, common on Machias Seal Island.
- Black guillemots: Smaller alcids, entirely black with bright red feet and a white wing patch.
- Arctic terns: Elegant gray-and-white seabirds with a deeply forked tail and a red bill. They breed alongside puffins at several colonies and defend their nests aggressively, so do not linger too close on Machias Seal Island.
- Common terns: Less aggressive than Arctic terns, similar appearance.
- Harbor seals: Likely on any trip. They haul out on rocky ledges near the islands.
What the “Can You See Puffins Without a Boat?” Question Actually Means
You cannot see nesting puffins from the mainland. The colonies are all on offshore islands, and the closest, Eastern Egg Rock, is several miles from New Harbor. There is no shore-based spot where you can observe a puffin colony.
That said, in late summer and fall, individual puffins occasionally appear in inshore waters. They are not predictable and you are not seeing nesting birds, just birds loafing between feeding dives. If you want to see puffins doing puffin things, carrying fish in their beaks, landing on burrows, interacting at the colony, you need a boat.
What to Bring
Puffin Tour Packing List
- Binoculars, an 8x42 pair is ideal for seabird watching from a boat
- Camera with as much zoom as you have, puffins at Eastern Egg Rock are at boat-length, not arm's length
- Layers and a windbreaker, open water is much cooler than shore even on a warm day
- Waterproof jacket, spray is likely and rain is possible
- Seasickness medication if you are prone, taken the night before and the morning of, not when you feel ill
- Sunscreen and polarized sunglasses
- Snacks and water, not all boats have galley service
- Closed-toe shoes, boat decks get wet
On the seasickness point: the Boothbay and New Harbor trips cross open ocean and conditions can be lumpy, especially in afternoon winds. The Machias Seal Island run from Cutler is longer still. If you have had trouble on whale watches or fishing trips, take your medication the night before as directed, not once you are underway. It does not work retroactively.
What About Puffins in Acadia?
Acadia National Park itself has no puffin colony. Mount Desert Island is not home to nesting puffins, and Bar Harbor does not sit on top of any of the colonies. The nearest is Petit Manan Island, down the coast to the east.
That said, Bar Harbor is a legitimate departure point for puffin viewing. Tour operators there run trips to the waters around Petit Manan through the summer. If you are spending a few days in Bar Harbor on an Acadia trip, you can add a puffin cruise without backtracking far.
If your weekend in Bar Harbor or 3-day Acadia itinerary has a half-day free, this is how to use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you see puffins in Maine right now?
If it is between late May and mid-August, yes, the colonies are active and tours are running. Outside that window, puffins are on the open Atlantic and cannot be reliably seen anywhere on the Maine coast. Check with tour operators directly for current departure schedules, as the season start and end dates shift slightly each year.
Can you see puffins in Maine without a boat?
Not the nesting colonies. Every puffin colony in Maine is on an offshore island. The nearest, Eastern Egg Rock, is several miles from New Harbor. There is no mainland vantage point where you can see a colony. A boat tour is the only reliable way to observe nesting puffins.
Are there puffins in Acadia National Park?
Acadia itself has no puffin colony. The park covers Mount Desert Island, which is not near any of the nesting islands. However, tour operators in Bar Harbor run puffin cruises toward Petit Manan Island down the coast through the summer. If you are based in Bar Harbor for an Acadia visit, you can add a puffin trip without a long detour.
What is the best month to see puffins in Maine?
June and July are peak. The birds are ashore, feeding chicks, and highly active. July is generally considered the single best month, with full colony activity, long days, and pufflings visible near burrow entrances. Late May and early August are also productive. After mid-August, adults begin leaving for the open ocean.
Can you land on the puffin islands?
Only on Machias Seal Island, via a landing permit held by Bold Coast Charter Company (from Cutler, Maine) or Sea Watch Tours (from Grand Manan, Canada). All other colonies, including Eastern Egg Rock, Petit Manan, Seal Island, and Matinicus Rock, are closed to the public during nesting season. Boat cruises circle or pass these islands while staying offshore.
How far in advance do I need to book a puffin tour?
For Machias Seal Island, book as soon as reservations open in the spring, spots sell out quickly. For Eastern Egg Rock cruises from New Harbor and Boothbay Harbor, summer weekends book well ahead. Weekdays in June and early August have more availability. Bar Harbor tours toward Petit Manan are generally easier to book but still fill up in peak summer.
What should I do if I get seasick?
Take an over-the-counter motion sickness medication the night before and the morning of your trip, as directed on the package. Medications taken after symptoms start are far less effective. On the boat, stay on deck, fix your eyes on the horizon, and avoid looking down at phones or cameras for long stretches. Sit or stand near the center and rear of the vessel where motion is reduced. Ginger chews help some people. If this is a serious concern, the New Harbor trips are among the shorter open-water runs.