Why name a cereal after a puffin? Employee inspiration. A longtime employee fell in love with these adorable seabirds during an Alaskan trip. It was the “ah-hah” moment when puffins the bird met Puffins the cereal. The rest is history.

We became passionate fans of Project Puffin, the Audubon Society's efforts to restore puffins to their former habitat of Eastern Egg Rock off the rugged coast of Maine. Once plentiful on this rocky island, by 1973, when Audubon launched Project Puffin, the orange-footed swimming birds had all but disappeared.

Between 1973 and 1986, Audubon naturalists transported a small colony of young puffins from puffin-rich Newfoundland and reintroduced them to Eastern Egg Rock. The first puffin pairs began to return to Eastern Egg Rock in 1977. Today, more than 30 years later, puffins are flourishing, with 101 pairs nesting on the island.

Project Puffin celebrated its 35th anniversary during August 2009. Barbara's is proud to be the sponsor of Audubon's Project Puffin Cam. View real time video of puffins and their seabird neighbors at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge.