Species: Fratercula cirrhata

Tufted Puffin
Species

    Articles:

    Dispatch from the last colony

    Tufted puffins have become an increasingly rare sight in the Pacific Northwest. Biologist and writer Eric Wagner recently visited Puget Sound's Smith Island, home to one of the region's last surviving colonies of these colorful seabirds. 

    Puffin in flight
    Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)

    With its striking plumage and brilliant orange bill, the Tufted Puffin is an iconic seabird well known to native peoples, fishermen, and coastal communities throughout its range in the temperate and sub-arctic North Pacific. Though pelagic in winter, puffins gather on islands and headlands during spring and summer to breed and raise their young. They are members of the auk family, with stocky bodies adapted to “flying” underwater as they dive in pursuit of a wide range of fish and invertebrate prey. Nesting Tufted Puffins range up to 100 km from their breeding colonies to forage for their nestlings, and are famed for carrying 20 or more small fish at one time, neatly lined up and carried crosswise in their large, brightly colored bills.

    Tufted Puffin. Photo by Peter Hodum.
    State of Washington status report for the tufted puffin

    A 2015 report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reviews information relevant to the status of the tufted puffin in Washington and addresses factors affecting this status. 

    Report cover
    Paper: A model approach for estimating colony size, trends and habitat associations of burrow-nesting seabirds

    A paper in the May 2013 issue of The Condor [115(2):356–365, 2013] describes a repeatable and statistically robust approach to monitoring burrow nesting seabirds in the Salish Sea and the California Current that can be applied at single- or multi-island scales. The approach can be applied to both relatively common and important members of the seabird community like the Rhinoceros Auklet and to species of conservation concern like the Tufted Puffin.

    Rhinoceros Auklet carrying sand lance. Photo by Peter Hodum.
    Protection Island

    Protection Island, a National Wildlife Refuge in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, provides important habitat for seabirds and marine mammals.

    Protection Island. Image courtesy of NOAA.
    Kingdom
    Animalia
    Phylum
    Craniata
    Class

    Aves

    Order

    Charadriiformes

    Family

    Alcidae

    Genus

    Fratercula

    Classification
    Other Global Common Names
    Macareux huppé
    Informal Taxonomy
    Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds
    Formal Taxonomy
    Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Charadriiformes - Alcidae - Fratercula - Often placed in the monotypic genus LUNDA (AOU 1983).
    Migration
    false - true - true
    Non-migrant
    false
    Locally Migrant
    true
    Food Comments
    Feeds on fishes, cephalopods, crustaceans, and polychaetes, as available. In Alaska, breeders and chicks ate more fishes than did nonbreeders (Baird 1991). Obtains food by diving underwater, often in deep water. See Wehle (1983) for information on feeding of young in Alaska.
    Reproduction Comments
    Breeding begins late April in south to early June in north. Mean laying date is in early June in the western Gulf of Alaska. Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 42-53 days (average 46). Young are tended by both adults for 43-53 days (average 46), then go to sea untended by adults. Many occupied burrows never have eggs laid in them (Johnsgard 1987).
    Ecology Comments
    Solitary or in pairs when at sea.
    Length
    38
    Weight
    779
    NatureServe Global Status Rank
    G5
    Global Status Last Reviewed
    2003-04-25
    Global Status Last Changed
    1996-11-27
    Other Status

    LC - Least concern

    Conservation Status Map
    <img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=S3&US.AK=S5&US.CA=S2&US.OR=S2&US.WA=S3" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
    Global Range
    H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDS: arctic coast of eastern Siberia and Cape Lisburne, Alaska, to northern Japan in western Pacific and Farallon Islands (central California) in eastern Pacific. WINTERS: offshore from Alaska and Kamchatka south through breeding range to central California and southern Japan; accidental in Hawaii (AOU 1983). Center of abundance appears to be western Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutians.
    Global Range Code
    H
    Global Range Description
    >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
    ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.100853