Tufted puffin
Tufted puffin | |
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Breeding adult, St. Paul Island, Alaska
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Alcidae |
Genus: | Fratercula |
Species: | F. cirrhata
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Binomial name | |
Fratercula cirrhata (Pallas, 1769)
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Distribution map of the tufted puffin
extant (resident) extant (breeding visitor)
extant (winter visitor)
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Synonyms | |
Alca cirrhata Pallas, 1769 |
The tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), also known as crested puffin, is a relatively abundant medium-sized
Description
Tufted puffins are around 35 cm (14 in) in length with a similar wingspan and weigh about three-quarters of a kilogram (1.6 lbs), making them the largest of all the puffins. Birds from the western Pacific population are somewhat larger than those from the eastern Pacific, and male birds tend to be slightly larger than females.[2]
They are primarily black with a white facial patch, and, typical of other puffin species, feature a very thick bill, primarily red with some yellow and occasionally green markings. Their most distinctive feature and namesake are the yellow tufts (
As among other alcids, the wings are relatively short, adapted for diving, underwater swimming, and capturing prey rather than gliding, of which they are incapable. As a consequence, they have thick, dark myoglobin-rich breast muscles adapted for a fast and aerobically strenuous wing-beat cadence, which they can nonetheless maintain for long periods of time.
Juvenile tufted puffins resemble winter adults, but with a grey-brown breast shading to white on the belly, and a shallow, yellowish-brown bill.[2] Overall, they resemble a horn-less and unmarked rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata).
Taxonomy
The tufted puffin was first described in 1769 by German zoologist
Since it may be more closely related to the
The juveniles, due to their similarity to C. 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").
Distribution and habitat
Tufted puffins form dense
Tufted puffins typically select
During the winter feeding season, they spend their time almost exclusively at sea, extending their
Behavior
Breeding
Breeding takes place on isolated islands: over 25,000 pairs have been recorded in a single colony off the coast of
Tufted puffins may be purely aquatic locomotive animals until they are three, living entirely as marine animals returning to shore only to breed on the nesting cliffs where they hatched. They tend to be well offshore when hatching.[citation needed]
Diet
Tufted puffins feed on a variety of
Feeding areas can be located far offshore from the nesting areas. Puffins can store large quantities of small fish in their bills and carry them to their chicks.
Predators and threats
Tufted puffins are preyed upon by various avian raptors such as snowy owls, bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and mammals like the Arctic fox. Foxes seem to prefer the puffin over other birds, making the bird a main target. 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.[2]
A mass die-off of puffins at
Relationship with humans
The
The tufted puffin is a familiar bird on the coasts of the Russian Pacific coast, where it is known as toporok (Топорок) – meaning "small axe," a hint to the shape of the bill. Toporok is the namesake of one of its main breeding sites, Kamen Toporkov ("Tufted Puffin Rock") or Ostrov Toporkov ("Tufted Puffin Island"), an islet offshore Bering Island.
The oldest recorded tufted puffin was six years old when discovered in Alaska, the same state where it had been banded.[14]
Conservation status in Puget Sound
Many rules and regulations have been set out to try to conserve fishes and shorebirds in Puget Sound. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) of Washington State has created aquatic reserves surrounding Smith and Minor Islands.[15] Over 36,000 acres (150 km2) of tidelands and seafloor habitat were included in the proposed aquatic reserve. Not only do these islands provide the necessary habitat for many seabirds such as tufted puffins and marine mammals, but this area also contains the largest kelp beds in all of Puget Sound. In addition, Protection Island reserve has also been off limits to the public to aid marine birds in breeding. Protection Island contains one of the last two nesting colonies of puffins in Puget Sound, and about 70% of the tufted puffin population nests on this island.[16]
References
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-854032-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-866196-2.
- ^ a b "Puffin". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Lee, D. S. & Haney, J. C. (1996) "Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus)", in: The Birds of North America, No. 257, (Poole, A. & Gill, F. eds). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC
- ^ Artyukhin, Yu.B.; Burkanov, V.N. (1999). Morskiye ptitsy i mlekopitayushchiye Dalnego Vostoka Rossii [Sea birds and mammals of the Russian Far East: A Field Guide] (in Russian). Moscow: АSТ Publishing. p. 215.
- JSTOR 1521401.
- ^ McChesney, G. J.; Carter, H. R. (2008). Studies of Western Birds. Vol. 1. pp. 213–217.
- ^ a b Stirling, K. (2000). "Fratercula cirrhata". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
- ^ "THE BIRD BOOK".
- ^ Piatt, J. F. and A. S. Kitaysky (2002). Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.708
- ^ Shankman, Sabrina (2019-05-29). "Mass Die-Off of Puffins Raises More Fears About Arctic's Warming Climate". InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2019-08-03.
- ^ "Tufted Puffin Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
- ^ "Smith & Minor Islands Aquatic Reserve Management Plan" (PDF). Seattle, WA: Washington State Department of Natural Resources. 2010.
- ^ Chew, J. (2010-11-04). "DNR ceremony seals Protection Island Aquatic Reserve". Peninsula Daily News.
External links
- ^ tufted_puffin_monitoring_study_at_haystack_rock_with_2018_data.pdf (cannon-beach.or.us) Stephensen, S.W. 2018. Tufted Puffin monitoring study at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon 2010-2017. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Unpublished Report, Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Newport, Oregon 97365. 20 pp.