Tufted puffin

Tufted puffins live by the cold North Pacific Ocean.

In summer they nest on islands. In winter they stay out at sea.

Tufted puffins live in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. In spring and summer they gather in colonies on islands and headlands, from California north to Alaska, and from Siberia south to Japan. They like grassy slopes and cliff tops on islands with no trees, where the soil is deep enough to dig in.

In winter they leave land and spend months at sea, alone or in small groups; many probably go far offshore, where they are seldom seen.

IUCN lists the species as resident in the United States, Canada, eastern Asian Russia and Japan and as a non-breeding visitor to North and South Korea; it is a full migrant. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife describes colonies on isolated offshore islands and accessible headlands in spring and summer, from California to Alaska and from Siberia to Japan, and nesting on grassy slopes, bluffs and plateaus with soil deep enough for burrows, away from introduced predators and people.

Kaufman (1996) noted a preference for treeless islands and steep slopes or cliff tops, where a steep drop may help birds take off. Birds must leave the northernmost colonies, where the sea freezes in winter; most were thought to winter far offshore, and the winter range is 'not well known' (Audubon).

Tufted puffins dive under the water.

They flap their wings to swim fast and catch small fish in their beaks.

Tufted puffins hunt by diving. Under the water they flap their wings as if they were flying, steering with their spread tail and their feet. They swim fast through schools of small fish and grab them in their bills.

They eat mostly small fish such as sand lance and capelin, plus small squid. When they feed a chick, they can carry many fish at once, lined up crosswise in the bill: sometimes more than 20!

Tufted puffins forage by diving and swimming underwater, using the wings to 'fly' with the tail spread and feet held back for steering, and seize fish while swimming rapidly through schools (Audubon). The diet is mainly small fish, especially sand lance and capelin, with small squid, saury, rockfish and smelt, and reportedly some crustaceans, mollusks, sea urchins and a little algae.

Breeding birds forage from nearshore waters to the open sea, but prefer to feed close to the colony for their nestlings, and are known for carrying many small fish at once, occasionally more than 20, held crosswise in the bill (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife). The bird in this page's photo is on the water off Tofino, British Columbia.

Tufted puffins nest close together in big groups.

Gulls sometimes steal their fish.

Tufted puffins nest in colonies, with many burrows close together, and are active there during the day. Life in a colony has dangers: bald eagles and other predators hunt puffins, and gulls try to steal the fish they carry.

Puffins are sensitive to disturbance while they nest. In colonies that people visit and disturb a lot, far fewer chicks survive.

The species breeds colonially and is active at colonies by day (Audubon). At colonies, tufted puffins face predation from bald eagles and other predators and kleptoparasitism (food stealing) by gulls (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife).

They are sensitive to disturbance while breeding: IUCN cites a study in which fledging success was 18% in heavily disturbed areas compared with 94% in undisturbed ones, with frequent visits and egg handling lengthening incubation and producing lighter chicks with shorter wings. Introduced rats take eggs and chicks, and foxes take chicks and adults; puffins are absent from islands with many foxes but normally return after the foxes are removed (IUCN).

There are lots of tufted puffins.

But in some places, like Washington State, very few are left. People are working to help them.

Worldwide, the tufted puffin is listed as least concern: there are millions of them. But in the south of its range numbers have fallen steeply. In Washington State, minimum estimates fell from 23,342 birds in 1978 to 1982 to 2,958 in 2009, and the state lists it as endangered.

Dangers include fishing nets, warming seas that change the fish puffins eat, rats and foxes brought to islands by people, oil spills and disturbance. When rats were removed from Hawadax Island, tufted puffins came back and nested there again.

BirdLife International assessed Fratercula cirrhata as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 19 February 2020, published 2020): an extremely large range, an apparently stable trend and more than 3.5 million individuals, or 2.3 million mature individuals (an estimate from del Hoyo et al. 1996). Drift-net bycatch probably drove past declines and may still threaten birds in Japanese and Russian waters. Sea surface temperature strongly affects breeding: in one study fledging success was virtually zero above 9.9 °C, though adult survival on Triangle Island was not affected by extreme climate events, so the severity of climate impacts remains uncertain. Rats, foxes, oil spills and disturbance are other threats (IUCN).

In Washington, minimum estimates fell from 23,342 birds (1978-1982) to 2,958 (2009), with 19 of 44 historical sites still occupied; the state lists it as endangered and has a recovery plan (2019). Kaufman (1996) noted that the puffin had disappeared from southern California and was much reduced in northern California. After rats were eradicated from Hawadax ('Rat Island'), puffins recolonized it and bred in 2013.