Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 14.2–15.7 in
36–40 cm - Wingspan
- 29.1 in
74 cm - Weight
- 18.3–35.3 oz
520–1000 g
Other Names
Cool Facts
- The Tufted Puffin nests mostly in deep burrows that it digs into cliff edges and slopes. These burrows can be more than 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep.
- The Tufted Puffin can capture and hold multiple small fish crosswise in its bill, routinely 5 to 20 fish at a time, for delivery to chicks at the nest. Adults eat their own food while still under water.
Habitat
Ocean
Breeds on coastal slopes in ground burrows, sometimes under boulders and piles of rocks, occasionally under dense vegetation. Winters at sea.
Food
Fish
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Condition at Hatching
- Covered in down, can walk, but stays in nest.
Nest Placement
Burrow
Behavior
Surface Dive
Conservation
Least Concern
Bycatch in fishing nets killed tens of thousands of Tufted Puffins each year into the 1980s. Elimination of drift-nets on the high seas has reduced mortality, although bycatch in coastal fishing nets still kills large numbers of puffins. In addition, nesting Tufted Puffins are highly vulnerable to red and arctic foxes, river otters, brown bears, and other mammals. Such predators were once absent from most islands in the northeast Pacific, but were introduced in the 1800s and early 1900s. Where present, mammalian predators have devastated or eliminated Tufted Puffins from many islands, but programs to eradicate the introduced species have led to dramatic recovery of puffin populations.
Credits
- Piatt, J. F., and A. S. Kitaysky. 2002. Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata). In The Birds of North America, No. 708 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.