Crested puffin
Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) are colorful seabirds, also known as “parrots of the sea” that spend winters in the open ocean and return to shore only to breed. They are found throughout the North Pacific Ocean and are easily recognizable by their thick red bill and yellow tufts.
Tufted puffins are primarily black with a white facial patch, and a very thick bill, primarily red with some yellow and occasionally green markings. Their most distinctive feature and namesake are the yellow tufts (Latin: cirri) that appear annually on birds of both sexes as the summer reproductive season approaches. Their feet become bright red and their face is also bright white in the summer. During the feeding season, the tufts molt off and the plumage, beak, and legs lose much of their luster. As among other alcids, the wings are relatively short, adapted for diving, underwater swimming, and capturing prey rather than gliding, of which they are incapable. As a consequence, they have thick, dark myoglobin-rich breast muscles adapted for a fast and aerobically strenuous wing-beat cadence, which they can nonetheless maintain for long periods of time. Juvenile Tufted puffins resemble winter adults but with a grey-brown breast shading to white on the belly, and a shallow, yellowish-brown bill.
Tufted puffins breed from British Columbia, throughout southeastern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, and throughout the Sea of Okhotsk. During the winter, they spend their time almost exclusively at sea, extending their range throughout the North Pacific and south to Japan and California. Tufted puffins typically select islands or cliffs that are relatively inaccessible to predators, close to productive waters, and high enough that they can take to the air successfully. The ideal habitat is steep but with a relatively soft soil substrate and grass for the creation of burrows.
Tufted puffins are highly gregarious birds; they live in large colonies and even feed in groups. They are active during the day and spend their time hanging around burrows or foraging. Despite being awkward on land, Tufted puffins are powerful fliers. They fly compactly and quickly traveling between nesting and foraging grounds. Feeding areas can be located far offshore from the nesting areas. These birds spend half of their rime on the water, paddling along the surface with their feet. They hunt by diving at depths of up to 100 feet (30 meters) and search out a school of fish; once the prey is spotted, puffins dive in pursuit. They can store large quantities of small fish in their bills and carry them to their chicks. Tufted puffins are usually silent and produce a relatively small number of sounds, mostly low in volume.
Tufted puffins are carnivores (piscivores). They feed on a variety of fish and marine invertebrates, however, their diet varies greatly with age and location. Adult puffins largely depend on invertebrates, especially squid and krill. Nestlings at coastal colonies are fed primarily fish such as rockfish and sandlance, while nestlings at colonies closer to pelagic habitats are more dependent on invertebrates.
Tufted puffins are monogamous and form long-lasting pair bonds. In order to attract the female, males perform courtship displays that include skypointing, strutting, and billing. These birds nest in burrows dug with the bill and feet or in a crevice between rocks. The nest inside the burrow is well-lined with vegetation and feathers. The female lays a single egg, usually in June, and both parents incubate it for about 45 days. When the chick is born it is covered in down, can walk, but stays in the nest between 40 and 55 days. During this time both parents feed and protect their young until it fledges. The chick usually leaves the nest at night and walks, runs, and flaps its way to the sea. It will spend almost 2 years at sea and at the age of 3 to 4 years, it will return on land to breed.
The main threats to Tufted puffins include habitat loss, climate change and severe weather, oil spills, entanglements in fishing nets, the use of pesticides, human disturbances during breeding and introduced predators. Like other seabirds, puffins suffer greatly from plastic pollutants at sea which they ingest mistaking it with prey items and then starve to death.
According to the IUCN Red List, the total population size of the Tufted puffin is more than 3,500,000 individuals. National population sizes include less than 100 breeding pairs and 50-1,000 wintering individuals in Japan and 10,000-1 million breeding pairs 1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in Russia. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List but its numbers today are decreasing.
