Guide · Seabirds

Bleiksøya puffins: the pointed island off Bleik

A steep green pyramid stands in the sea west of Bleik, and in summer its slopes belong to seabirds. Here is what is known about the Bleiksøya puffins, how the colony has changed and how to see it without setting foot on it.

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Editorial team, bleikwhalewatching.comUpdated October 20, 2026Read time: 6 min32 sources

Bookable here: the tour Bleik speedboat whale watching with puffins 4.7 (400 reviews) 3.5 hoursMax. 12 guests on the RIBFlotation suit, tea, coffee and muffins from$201per person Check availabilityFree to cancel until 24 hrs ahead

At a glance

01Protected: Bleiksøya has been a nature reserve since 6 December 2002.¹
02Puffins: The official 2013 count was 11,000 pairs, down 85 percent.²
03No landing: Going ashore is banned from 15 April to 31 July.³
04Season: Puffin safaris run at Bleik from May to August.⁴
05Leaving: The birds leave the island around 20 August.⁵

The bird cliff west of the village

Store norske leksikon calls the bird cliff of Bleiksøya the main sight of Bleik. It lies just west of the village and, together with a few nearby islets and skerries, is protected as a nature reserve.⁶ From the white beach it looks close enough to swim to, a sharp cone of grass and rock rising out of open water.

The reserve was created by royal decree on 6 December 2002.¹ It covers about 393 decares, and about 248 of those are sea rather than land.⁷ The regulation names its special value plainly: a breeding area for cliff-nesting auks and other seabirds.⁸

For visitors, that means Bleiksøya is something you look at, not something you climb. The puffin trips from Bleik and the whale boats that pass on their way back give the closest views, and the beach and the road along the coast give the widest ones.

The breeding year

A summer on Bleiksøya

April

Landing ban begins

No one may go ashore from 15 April.³
May

Puffin trips start

Puffin safaris from Bleik begin in May.⁴
Early summer

One egg per pair

It is incubated for 40 to 45 days.⁹
June and July

Chicks are fed

The colonies lie near herring fry of the right size.¹⁰
End of July

Landing ban ends

The ban runs until 31 July inclusive.³
August

The birds leave

Around 20 August the puffins head out to sea.⁵

How many puffins are there? Two numbers

You will see very different figures for the Bleiksøya puffins, and it helps to know where they come from. The County Governor of Nordland reported that the colony was estimated at 11,000 pairs in 2013, a drop of 64,000 pairs or 85 percent compared with earlier counts.² The same report said the kittiwake cliffs on the island held no birds at all that year.¹¹

Earlier counts in the bird cliffs of Vesterålen had found large numbers of both puffins and kittiwakes, with smaller groups of razorbills and guillemots.¹² Tourist information has not always kept up: Visit Vesterålen's puffin safari page still says 80,000 pairs breed on the island, without a date for that figure.¹³

The dated official count is the one to trust, and it is a sobering one. The Atlantic puffin is red-listed as Endangered in Norway and as Vulnerable worldwide.¹⁴ Plenty of birds still fill the water and the sky around the island in summer, but what you see is a colony under pressure, which is reason enough to watch it with care.

The regulation

What the Bleiksøya reserve rules say

Activity	Rule	When
Going ashore	banned	15 April to 31 July
Gillnet fishing	banned	1 April to 31 August
Motor traffic on land	banned	all year
Aircraft, low flying under 300 m	banned	all year
Model boats and aircraft, jet skis	banned	all year
Camping, tents, photo hides	banned	all year

From the regulation for Bleiksøya nature reserve, laid down by royal decree in 2002.³ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹

Ways to see the island

Three trips that pass Bleiksøya

Bleik: Whale Watching by Speedboat with Puffins and Muffins

By boat

Whales and puffins

RIB from Bleik Marina

Duration: 3.5 hrs
Group: max. 12 guests
Birds named: puffins, eagles, gannets

See the trip

Sortland: Andøya Scenic Route & Wildlife Tour

By road

Andøya scenic drive

Guided drive from Sortland

Duration: 5 hrs
Villages: Bø, Bleik or Dverberg
Group: max. 7

See the trip

From Svolvær: Whale Watching Day Trip to Andenes

Photo stop

Coach day from Svolvær

Whales at Andenes

Duration: 14 hrs
Stop at Bleik: 15 min
Whale trip: 3 hrs by RIB

See the trip

Decision helper

How should you see the puffins?

Match the view to your time and plans

Puffins and whales in one go The widest view for free A guided day on the road Coming from Lofoten Late August or later

Bleik RIB trip

Its listing names puffins among the wildlife of the canyon trip.

Bleik beach

The white beach stretches over 2.5 km facing the island.¹⁸

Andøya scenic drive

The drive can call at Bleik with a local wildlife guide.

Svolvær coach day

It includes a 15-minute photo stop at Bleik.

Look for whales instead

The puffins leave around 20 August.⁵

From 15 April up to and including 31 July, traffic on land in the protected area is prohibited.

Lovdata (Klima- og miljødepartementet)Norwegian original, translated · Source 3

A puffin's summer

Across Norway the puffin is still the most numerous seabird on the mainland, and about 15,000 pairs also breed on Svalbard.¹⁹ The newest national estimate dates from 2015 and counts well over a million pairs on the mainland alone.²⁰ Bleiksøya is one small part of that picture, but one you can see from the beach road without a boat.

Each pair raises a single chick. The egg is laid in a scree crevice or at the end of a tunnel up to two metres long that the birds dig themselves, it is incubated for 40 to 45 days, and the chick usually stays in the nest until it is 38 to 44 days old.⁹ That is why the adults spend the whole summer flying back and forth with fish.

Store norske leksikon links the position of the big Norwegian colonies to herring fry of the right size in June and July, the weeks when the chicks are fed.¹⁰ Watch the birds coming in low over the water with their beaks full, and you are looking at the reason the colony exists where it does.

Map

Bleik, the canyon coast and the way to Andøya

The village and its bird island, the town at the tip of Andøya, the roads and ferries in, and the winter whale coast further north.

Map of northern Andøya with Bleik, the island of Bleiksøya, Andenes and Andøya airport — Bleik and Andenes

Map of Vesterålen and Lofoten with Bleik, Andenes, Gryllefjord on Senja, Sortland, Svolvær and Evenes airport — Vesterålen and the routes in

Map of Northern Norway from Svolvær and Andenes north-east to Tromsø and Skjervøy — Northern Norway's whale coasts

1
Bleik
A fishing village on the north-west side of Andøya; the speedboat trip this site recommends leaves from Bleik Marina, a 10-minute drive from Andenes.²¹
In Google Maps ↗
2
Andenes
The administrative centre of Andøy at the island's northern tip, and the harbour of the Andenes whale boats.²²
In Google Maps ↗
3
Bleiksøya
The bird cliff off Bleik, a nature reserve where going ashore is banned from 15 April to 31 July.⁶ ³
In Google Maps ↗
4
Andøya Airport
About one kilometre from Andenes; Avinor lists Widerøe as its only airline.²³ ²⁴
In Google Maps ↗
5
Gryllefjord
The Senja end of the summer ferry to Andenes; the 2026 sailing season runs until 27 September.²⁵ ²⁶
In Google Maps ↗
6
Sortland
Starting point of a guided drive along the Andøya Scenic Route that can call at Bleik.
In Google Maps ↗
7
Svolvær
Start of a 14-hour coach day trip to whale watching in Andenes, with a photo stop in Bleik.
In Google Maps ↗
8
Evenes Airport
Harstad/Narvik airport, where Avinor lists 5 airlines.²⁷
In Google Maps ↗
9
Tromsø
Winter whale trips head north from here towards Skjervøy and Kvænangen.²⁸
10
Skjervøy
Since 2017 orcas and humpbacks have gathered in the Kvænangen area, including the fjords around Skjervøy, to feed on herring.²⁹

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

Puffin watching at Bleik

Bring

Binoculars, even on the boat
A long lens and fast shutter
A warm layer for the open water

Respect the reserve

No landing from 15 April to 31 July³
No drones or model aircraft
Let the skipper choose the distance
Come before about 20 August⁵

Video

By ferry from Senja to Andøya for whales and puffins

Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.

The rules around the reserve

The landing ban is the rule that matters most to visitors. From 15 April to 31 July inclusive, nobody may go ashore in the reserve.³ Gillnet fishing inside it is banned from 1 April to 31 August.¹⁵

Other rules apply all year. Motor traffic on land is forbidden, and so are aircraft take-offs and landings and low flying below 300 m.¹⁶ Model boats, model aircraft, jet skis and surfboards are banned in the reserve, as are camping, pitching a tent and setting up camouflage hides for photography.¹⁷

If you are tempted to bring a drone or a kayak, check the regulation text first and stay well outside the reserve's boundary. A puffin that flushes off its burrow leaves an egg or chick exposed, and a colony that has already lost most of its birds has nothing to spare.

Seeing the puffins from a boat

Visit Vesterålen says puffin safaris from Bleik run from May to August.⁴ The birds leave Bleiksøya around 20 August, so the last weeks of summer are the end of the puffin season.⁵ After August the island is quiet.

The whale trip this site recommends combines the two. Its listing names puffins among the birds you are likely to meet while searching for whales, alongside eagles, gannets and harbor seals, and its title puts the puffins next to the whales. It leaves from Bleik Marina, a 10-minute drive from Andenes.

From the water you see the island the way the birds use it: rafts of puffins resting on the sea, streams of them flying to and from the slopes, and the cliff faces above. Keep a long lens or binoculars at hand and let the boat drift. A puffin in flight is fast and small, and a burst of photos works better than a single shot. Overcast light is kinder to the black and white plumage than harsh sun, so a grey day is no reason to stay ashore.

From the beach and the village

You do not need a boat for a first look. Bleikstranda, the beach just north of the village, gave Bleik its name through its white sand, and Visit Vesterålen says it stretches over 2.5 km.³⁰ ¹⁸ Walk along it towards the western end and Bleiksøya fills the view across the water.

South-west of the village lies a second reserve, Bleiksmorenen, protected for its special value in Quaternary geology rather than for birds.³¹ It covers about 1,235 decares.³² Together with the beach and the bird island it makes Bleik a small village with an unusual amount of protected nature around it.

On land, binoculars are the best tool you can carry. On a still evening you can pick out the dark specks of birds over the island, and with patience the shapes of puffins against the grass. On a calm day the calls of the colony carry across the water, and the beach is a fine place to sit and wait. A coach day from Svolvær even builds in a 15-minute photo stop at Bleik for exactly that view.

Watching without disturbing

Good puffin watching is quiet watching. Stay low in the boat, keep voices down when the skipper slows near the island, and never ask a crew to go closer than they choose to. The rules of the reserve exist because the birds are vulnerable, and the counts show it.

If you visit by land, stay on paths and keep dogs on a lead near the shore during the breeding season. Leave the island to the birds: the landing ban is not a formality but the core of the protection.³

The reward for that patience is real. A puffin's bright beak, its quick wingbeats and the sheer noise of a summer colony are among the best wildlife moments in Northern Norway, and on a trip from Bleik they can come in the same few hours as a sperm whale's tail.

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