Group of tufted puffins, Bogoslof Island, Alaska Paul Island, Alaska between October 2016 and January 2017 has been attributed to ecosystem changes resulting from climate change. Choosing inaccessible cliffs and entirely mammal-free islands protects them from terrestrial predators while laying eggs in burrows is effective in protecting them from egg-scavengers like gulls and ravens. Foxes seem to prefer the puffin over other birds, making the bird a main target. Tufted puffins are preyed upon by various avian raptors such as snowy owls, bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and mammals like the Arctic fox. Puffins can store large quantities of small fish in their bills and carry them to their chicks. įeeding areas can be located far offshore from the nesting areas. Demersal fish are consumed in some quantity by most nestlings, suggesting that puffins feed to some extent on the ocean bottom. 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. Adult puffins largely depend on invertebrates, especially squid and krill. However, their diet varies greatly with age and location. Tufted puffins feed on a variety of fish and marine invertebrates, which they catch by diving from the surface. ĭuring the winter feeding season, they spend their time almost exclusively at sea, extending their range throughout the North Pacific and south to Japan and California.Īdult swimming at the Henry Doorly Zoo Diet Ideal habitat is steep but with a relatively soft soil substrate and grass for the creation of burrows. 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. However, the last confirmed sighting at the Channel Islands occurred in 1997. They have been known to nest in small numbers as far south as the northern Channel Islands, off the coast of southern California. corniculata), the range of the tufted puffin is generally more eastern. While they share some habitat with horned puffins ( F. Tufted puffins form dense breeding colonies during the summer reproductive season from Washington state and British Columbia, throughout southeastern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and throughout the Sea of Okhotsk. monocerata, were initially mistaken for a distinct species of a monotypic genus, and named Sagmatorrhina lathami (" Latham's saddle-billed auk", from sagmata "saddle" and rhina "nose"). The juveniles, due to their similarity to C. Since it may be more closely related to the rhinoceros auklet than the other puffins, it is sometimes placed in the monotypic genus Lunda. It was later extended to include the similar and related Pacific puffins. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name at a much later stage, possibly because of its similar nesting habits, and it was formally applied to that species by Pennant in 1768. It is an Anglo-Norman word ( Middle English pophyn or poffin) used for the cured carcasses. ![]() The vernacular name puffin – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species, the Manx shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". ![]() The specific name cirrhata is Latin for "curly-headed", from cirrus, a curl of hair. The scientific name Fratercula comes from the Medieval Latin fratercula, friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The tufted puffin was first described in 1769 by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas. Tufted puffins in Tokyo Sea Life Park Taxonomy
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