Fratercula cirrhatatufted puffin

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tufted puffins are North­ern Pa­cific sea birds that spend a ma­jor­ity of the year over the Pa­cific Ocean, but nest along coast­lines from lower Cal­i­for­nia to Alaska, and across the ocean from Japan to the shores of north­east­ern Asia. (Gas­ton 1998)

Habi­tat

Al­though puffins spend a ma­jor­ity of the year on the ocean, they build their nests on the shores of is­lands and coastal re­gions. They re­quire shores with steep, grassy, slop­ing land with soil that al­lows them to bur­row. In more rocky areas, puffins build their nests in the rock and on cliff faces. They pre­fer high places that allow them to swoop down and gain mo­men­tum. Their stubby wings make it dif­fi­cult for them to take flight from water or land with­out help. They pre­fer se­cluded areas where some pro­tec­tion is of­fered by their sur­round­ings. Their bur­rows are typ­i­cally two to six feet long, and four to six inches in di­am­e­ter. In highly pop­u­lated colonies, the bur­rows of two or three of the an­i­mals some­times run to­gether. (Paul 1994, Gas­ton 1998, Jew­ett 1953)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Frater­cula cir­rhata is sim­i­lar in size to crows, with an av­er­age length of 15 inches, and a 15 inch wingspan. Size varies a lit­tle from lo­ca­tion to lo­ca­tion: west­ern Pa­cific an­i­mals tend to be a lit­tle larger than east­ern ones. There is also a dif­fer­ence in size be­tween the sexes as male birds tend to be slightly larger than fe­males.

In the win­ter, as puffins pre­pare for spring breed­ing, their col­ors be­come more dec­o­ra­tive, pre­sum­ably to at­tract mates. Dur­ing this time they de­velop a brown­ish-black body, with some white feath­ers lin­ing the un­der­side of the wing, a white face and glossy, yel­low plumes above and be­hind eye. The bill is mostly bright red, with yel­low and some­times green mark­ings. When breed­ing ends in the early sum­mer, puffins lose their plumes, the bright col­ors of the bill turn to a dull red­dish-brown,and the belly is speck­led with some pale brown flecks. Their legs and feet are red or or­ange-red through­out the year.

Ju­ve­nile puffins re­sem­ble win­ter adults, but with a grey-brown breast, white belly, and a shal­low, brown bill. (Gas­ton 1998, Gabriel­son 1970)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    700 to 840 g
    24.67 to 29.60 oz
  • Average mass
    760 g
    26.78 oz

Re­pro­duc­tion

Dur­ing the pe­riod prior to egg lay­ing, large groups of puffins con­gre­gate off-shore from their nest­ing colony and en­gage in in­tense courtships and fre­quent cop­u­la­tions. Sim­i­lar be­hav­iors occur on land at the same time, with puffins court­ing mates through sky­point­ing (fly­ing straight up­wards), strut­ting, and billing (two birds rub­bing their bills to­gether).

Frater­cula cir­rhata usu­ally begin breed­ing in April, al­though mat­ing ac­tiv­ity has been seen as early as March and as late as May in some cases.

Each fe­male puf­fin lays one off-white egg, some­times with faint blue and brown mark­ings, usu­ally be­tween late April and early June. Eggs pro­duced later than June are un­likely to pro­duce fledg­lings. The peak egg-lay­ing pe­riod usu­ally lasts about two weeks in each colony. Both par­ents help with in­cu­ba­tion, which last be­tweeen 40 and 53 days.

Once the chicks hatch, their growth rate is vari­able be­tween colonies and from year to year. The dif­fer­ence is de­pen­dent on the feed­ing con­di­tions of their lo­ca­tion. Both par­ents take turns bring­ing food to the chicks, which hap­pens two to three times daily, and most fre­quently in the morn­ing and early evening. Chicks re­main in the bur­row and rely on their par­ents until they are fledged, which usu­ally hap­pens 45-55 days after hatch­ing. There is no post-fledg­ing parental care, and the puffling first leaves the nest for the open sea alone and at night. Young puffins usu­ally do not re­turn to the colony for al­most two years, spend­ing all their time at sea. Puffins be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture at the age of three, but most do not mate until they're four.

Ju­ve­niles moult dur­ing their first win­ter at sea, and again the fol­low­ing au­tumn. Adult puffins moult com­pletely fol­low­ing the breed­ing sea­son, and par­tially be­fore breed­ing. (Gas­ton 1998, Kessel 1989, Paul 1994)

  • Breeding interval
    Tufted puffins breed once yearly.
  • Breeding season
    Fratercula cirrhata usually begin breeding in April, although mating activity has been seen as early as March and as late as May in some cases.
  • Average eggs per season
    1
  • Range time to hatching
    40 to 53 days
  • Range fledging age
    45 to 55 days
  • Range time to independence
    45 to 55 days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    3-4 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    3-4 years

Both par­ents in­cu­bate, pro­tect, and feed their de­vel­op­ing young until they are fledged.

  • Parental Investment
  • no parental involvement
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • protecting
      • male
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • male
      • female
    • protecting
      • male
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Puffins are highly so­cial an­i­mals; they live in large colonies, and fish to­gether in flocks of 10 to 25 birds. When faced with an in­truder close to their bur­row, puffins open their bills and lower their head, and may fol­low this ac­tion with bill grap­pling or kick­ing. When con­specifics fight, they spread their wings, open their mouths wide, stomp their feet, and wres­tle with their op­po­nents. Such dis­plays often draw crowds of birds to watch.

Every year puffins over-win­ter on the ocean. Their wa­ter­proof feath­ers and their abil­ity to drink salt water and catch fish make stay­ing long pe­ri­ods on the sea pos­si­ble. They dis­perse widely while at sea but re­turn to the colony where they were born, and usu­ally to the same mate, every year for breed­ing. It is un­known how they do this, but it is spec­u­lated that they use sounds, smells, or vi­sual cues from the sky or the ocean to find their way home. (Gas­ton 1998, Paul 1994, Kessel 1989)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Tufted puffins have a lim­ited range of calls, in­clud­ing a low grum­bling noise heard usu­ally from un­der­ground in breed­ing colonies. Chicks often peep to in­di­cate that they want food. They use pos­tures and other phys­i­cal cues to com­mu­ni­cate as well.

They use un­known cues for find­ing their way back from the vast­ness of the open ocean to the nest­ing colonies in which they were born.

Food Habits

Tufted puffins are pri­mar­ily off­shore feed­ers. Dur­ing nest­ing, and when food is in abun­dance, they may feed in­shore. The diet of chicks is al­most en­tirely small fish, while the adults' diets are more di­verse. Adults prey mostly on an­chovies and other small fish, but also eat squid, oc­to­pus, crabs, zoo­plank­ton, and jel­ly­fish.

When hunt­ing for fish, puffins usu­ally at­tack fish in schools.

Puffins fly very close the the water and feed by div­ing under the water catch­ing their prey in their mouths. They can stay un­der­wa­ter for 20 to 30 sec­onds using their wings to swim. When tak­ing food to their young, they usu­ally hold about 10 fish in their mouths while re­turn­ing to the nest, but they have been ob­served car­ry­ing up to 6o fish in their bills at one time. Puffins use their tongues to hold fish against the spiny palate in their mouth while open­ing their beak to catch more fish. (Arc­tic Stud­ies Cen­ter 1997, Jew­ett 1953, Gas­ton 1998)

  • Animal Foods
  • fish
  • mollusks
  • aquatic crustaceans
  • cnidarians
  • zooplankton

Pre­da­tion

Tufted puffins pro­tect their young by nest­ing on off­shore is­lands and in bur­rows. Adults are swift in flight and spend much of their time in the open ocean. Puffins may be preyed on by sharks and other large seabirds.

Ecosys­tem Roles

Puffins are im­por­tant preda­tors of small fish and ma­rine in­ver­te­brates in the areas in which they live.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Tufted puffins were his­tor­i­cally hunted for food. Hunt­ing puffins is dis­cour­aged nowa­days in most places, and for­bid­den by law in oth­ers, but peo­ple who do still hunt them try to cap­ture only non-breed­ing an­i­mals. In the past, skins were used to make tough parkas worn feather side in. Puffins are also used as tourist at­trac­tions for com­mu­ni­ties near healthy colonies, but vis­i­tors must watch the birds from the ocean. Be­cause human dis­tur­bances may cause puffins to leave their nest­ing sites, peo­ple are often pro­hib­ited from land­ing at nest­ing sites. Puffins are also in­di­ca­tors of a healthy ocean, and show hu­mans when over-fish­ing is oc­cur­ing. When there are fewer fish in the ocean, puffins bring a no­tice­ably re­duced amount of fish ashore. (Paul 1994, Kessel 1989)

  • Positive Impacts
  • food
  • body parts are source of valuable material
  • ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Frater­cula cir­rhata does no harm to hu­mans. Puffins will only harm peo­ple when they in­trude on their nest­ing sites. They have a beak strong enough to bite through a human fin­ger to the bone. (Lock­ley 1953)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Frater­cula cir­rhata is not a threat­ened species, but in some lo­ca­tions its num­bers are de­creas­ing. In Alaska, they are highly abun­dant, but the seabird colonies of Alaska are pro­tected by fed­eral and state laws. Also, a per­mit is often re­quired to land on is­lands where puffins are nest­ing. In the puf­fin colonies along the coasts of Cal­i­for­nia, Ore­gon, and Wash­ing­ton, pop­u­la­tion size has been de­clin­ing since the be­gin­ning of the cen­tury due to de­creas­ing num­bers of fish, ocean pol­lu­tion, and oil spills. As with most species, puffins have fallen vic­tim to the ex­pan­sion of hu­mans. To at­tempt to make up for human takeover of land that was once used for puf­fin nest­ing, some pro­grams have been set up to re­store of for­mer nest­ing colonies and help re­duce the risk to pop­u­la­tions by es­tab­lish­ing more nest­ing sites. (Paul 1994, Small 1994)

Other Com­ments

Tufted Puffins have three major preda­tors: Snowy Owls, Bald Ea­gles, and Arc­tic Foxes. Puffins try to se­lect habi­tats that will be dif­fi­cult for foxes to reach, and lay­ing their eggs in bur­rows makes them in­ac­ces­si­ble to the preda­tor. How­ever, foxes seem to pre­fer the puf­fin over other birds, mak­ing the bird a main tar­get. (Gas­ton, 1998, Jew­ett 1953)

Con­trib­u­tors

Katie Stir­ling (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

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Pacific Ocean

body of water between the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), Australia, Asia, and the western hemisphere. This is the world's largest ocean, covering about 28% of the world's surface.

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Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

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acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

coastal

the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.

ecotourism

humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

natatorial

specialized for swimming

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

pelagic

An aquatic biome consisting of the open ocean, far from land, does not include sea bottom (benthic zone).

piscivore

an animal that mainly eats fish

saltwater or marine

mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

visual

uses sight to communicate

zooplankton

animal constituent of plankton; mainly small crustaceans and fish larvae. (Compare to phytoplankton.)

Ref­er­ences

Gabriel­son, I. 1970. Birds of the Pa­cific North­west. New York: Dover Pub­li­ca­tions, Inc..

Gas­ton, A., I. Jones. 1998. The Auks. New York: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Kessel, B. 1989. Birds of Alaska. New York: Uni­ver­sity of Alaska Press.

Lock­ley, R. 1953. Puffins. Lon­don: J.M. Dent and Sons.

No au­thor, 1997. ""Puf­fin" Arc­tic Stud­ies Cen­ter" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 15, 2000 at http://​www.​mnh.​si.​edu/​arctic/​html/​puffin.​html.

Paul, T., W. Lehn­hausen, S. Quin­lan. 1994. ""Puffins" ADF&G Wildlife Note­book Se­ries" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 20, 2000 at http://​www.​state.​ak.​us/​adfg/​notebook/​bird/​puffins.​htm.

Small, A. 1994. Cal­i­for­nia Birds, Sta­tus and Dis­tri­b­u­tion. New York: IBIS Pub­lish­ing.