While it is easy to see the connection that birds bring to The Flight of Gemma Hardy in regards to Jane Eyre, the bird that is first mentioned by Gemma could be a hint to her Icelandic heritage. "I stepped over to the bookcase and pulled down one of my favourite books: Birds of the World. Each page showed a bird in its natural habitat—a puffin with its fat, gaudy beak, peering out of a burrow, a lyre-bird spreading its tail beneath a huge leafy tree—accompanied by a description." Puffins are specifically located in northern oceans. The Atlantic Puffin is found off the coasts of "northern Europe, northern France up to the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland, Norway and Atlantic Canada. More than 90% of the global population is found in Europe (4,770,000–5,780,000 pairs, equaling 9,550,000–11,600,000 adults) and colonies in Iceland alone are home to 60% of the world's Atlantic puffins" (Wikipedia).

Puffins actually are a tourist business themselves in Iceland, including boat tours, Puffin watching tours, and even a business called The Puffin Express in Rekjavik. In 2015, The Iceland Monitor called the Puffin "Iceland's most precious bird" because of its impact on the economy, nature, cousine, and tourism. https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2015/09/28/iceland_s_most_precious_bird/