They are competent fliers once they become airborne, but take-offs and landings are frequently a bit on the speculative side. Tufted puffins are highly social, fishing and traveling in groups of 2-20 birds and nesting in large colonies. ![]() The adults do not accompany the fledgling and there is no parental care after the chick has left the nest. It leaves the nest at dusk or during the night, walking or flying directly to the water. The chick stays in or at the edge of the nest for 42-55 days until ready to fledge. The eyes of the down covered chicks are open at birth. Both partners share incubation duties for 40-53 days and then share feeding duties. Usually only a single whitish-colored egg that may have faint markings, spots, or scrawls is laid. It has been observed that one mating partner does most of the digging and cleaning while the other uses it bill to transport of the nest building materials. Nesting materials include grass, twigs, feathers, and even floating algae and plastic debris. ![]() These puffins excavate their burrows and crevices and clean them using their feet and occasionally the bill. They also nest in rock crevices, and in sea cliff cracks and crevices. The most common nest is an earthen burrow that may be as long as 1.5 m (5 ft) long along, cliff edges, steep slopes covered with vegetation, and sandy bluffs. Mating takes place at sea as well as at nesting sites. The breeding season is usually from April to June. They arrive at the breeding grounds either in pairs or form pairs shortly after arrival. Socially monogamous, they form pair bonds that often last for many years. The adult carries 5-20 fish to the chick arranged crosswise in its sharp, strong, and heavy beak, a meal called a bill-load. Chicks are usually fed a variety of fish species, whatever is available close to the breeding colony. In the breeding season they forage close inshore on squid, marine worms, krill, and small schooling fish-anchovy, sandlance, capelin, and juvenile pollock. It is estimated that 50-70 percent of their diet is invertebrates. In the non-breeding season they mostly prey on squid and krill although they will also eat small fishes, octopus, sea jellies, and crabs. Tufted puffins capture and eat prey primarily underwater, in mid-water depths. Dietįoraging takes place at dawn and dusk. Eastern Pacific birds tend to be smaller than western Pacific birds. Males tend to be a little larger than females. These birds range in length from 30-40 cm (11.8-15.7 in) and have a wingspan of about 74 cm (29 in). Juveniles are a brownish-gray and have a shorted bill. In non-breeding (basic) plumage, the white face patches become gray-brown, the plumes disappear, bill plates are shed, and the bill’s red tip also disappears. Legs and feet are usually red or orange-red. During the breeding season their thick, deep bills are bright red with yellow marking. In breeding (alternate) plumage adults have a white patch on either side of the face, and long, golden head plumes from just behind their eyes draping down the back. Plumage is-black above and dark gray to black below. Tufted Puffins are medium-sized, compact birds with a large head, short, stiff wings and webbed feet on short legs. Once chicks fledge and leave the nest, they spend about two juvenile years at sea, coming ashore only after they become adults. They prefer such places as the seaward faces of sandy bluffs above beaches, steep grassy slopes, or sometimes in crevices and cracks on cliffs. Tufted Puffins spend most of their lives in the open ocean, but during the breeding season mature birds are found on islands and coastal areas in places that have areas suitable for nesting. ![]() ![]() Summer non-breeding range:oceanic waters of central north Pacific Habitat Summer breeding range: US west coast, British Columbia, Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Bering and Chukchi Seas, Japan, northern Sea of Okhotsk, Kuril Islands. Winter: broad area of north Pacific Ocean in ice-free areas. They live in the Diving Birds exhibit in the Northern Pacific Gallery. The noise accompanying their spats sometimes reaches very high levels. They have strong personalities and definite likes and dislikes. Our tufted puffins Naia, Monty, Speedy, and Val have lived at the Aquarium since 1998. CONSERVATION STATUS: Safe for Now - ProtectedĬLIMATE CHANGE: Not Applicable At the Aquarium
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