Source: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/tufpuf/introduction
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:29:37+00:00

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Figure 1. Distribution of the Tufted Puffin in North America and easternmost Russia.
The Tufted Puffin winters in the Pacific Ocean north and south of the distribution shown and is rarely found in breeding areas during winter. This species also breeds in other parts of Asia. See text for details.
Figure 4. Native American (Tlingit) dance apron, fringed with Tufted Puffin bills.
Ceremonial Tlingit dance apron, fringed with hundreds of Tufted Puffin bills that served as rattles (inset shows detail of puffin bills). The woven Chilkat blanket panel (made from goat wool and cedar-bark yarn) is mounted on buckskin. Dates approximately 1840-1850; collected 1939, Wrangell, AK, by Maj. Max C. Fleischmann. Photos and permission to reproduce them here provided by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, courtesy of J. Timbrook, Curator of Ethnography.
Tufted Puffins are cool. Unlike their familiar brethren—Horned (Fratercula corniculata) and Atlantic (F. arctica) puffins, whose appearances convey comic charm and innocence—Tufted Puffins exude stern confidence. With all-black body plumage, striking white robber's mask, chunky orange bill, and streaming golden head-plumes, this is one member of the auk family whose appearance—like that of a biker in leather regalia—says, “Don't mess with me!” Their status as seabird tough-guys is not unwarranted. Few other seabirds breed over such a vast geographic range and extreme of climatic regimes, from cactus-covered rocks in southern California to frozen cliffs of the coastal Alaskan Arctic. And few other seabirds range so widely at sea, from icy waters of the Chukchi Sea to the warm, subtropical expanse of the Central North Pacific Ocean, and east to west from the California Current to the Kuroshio Current of Japan.
While known for carrying bill-fulls of small fish to young and for breeding on continental-shelf habitats that teem with abundant forage fish such as sandlance (Ammodytes hexapterus) and juvenile pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), this species has many life-history attributes that remind one of the more pelagic shearwaters (Puffinus spp.). Adult Tufted Puffins are the most pelagic of the Alcidae ( Bent, A. C. (1919). Life histories of North American diving birds. U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull. 107.
Bent 1919, Kuroda, N. (1955). Observation on pelagic birds of the northwest Pacific Ocean. Condor 57:290-300.
Kuroda 1955, Shuntov, V. P. (1972). Seabirds and the biological structure of the ocean. Vladivostok. [Translated from Russian by U.S. Bur. Sport Fish. and Wildl. and Nat. Sci. Foundation, Washington, D.C. (NTIS-TT-74-55032), 1974.]: Far-Eastern Publ. House.
Shuntov 1972), ranging widely from colonies in summer to find fish for their young, but feeding themselves largely on invertebrates, especially squid and euphausiids. During the nonbreeding season, adults migrate far south to oceanic waters of the Central North Pacific, where their diet consists largely of squid, euphausiids, and pelagic fish. Juveniles migrate south to the Central North Pacific after fledging ( Shuntov, V. P. (1972). Seabirds and the biological structure of the ocean. Vladivostok. [Translated from Russian by U.S. Bur. Sport Fish. and Wildl. and Nat. Sci. Foundation, Washington, D.C. (NTIS-TT-74-55032), 1974.]: Far-Eastern Publ. House.
Shuntov 1972) and may not return to coastal breeding areas for several years. Thus, the Tufted Puffin, even more so than the Horned Puffin ( Piatt, J. F. and A. S. Kitaysky. (2002). "Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata)." In The birds of North America, no. 611., edited by A. Poole and F. Gill. Philadelphia, PA: The Birds of North America, Inc.
Piatt and Kitaysky 2002), is a pelagic species that spends most of its life at great distances from land and has a diet more similar to shearwaters and petrels (Pterodroma spp.) than to most other alcids ( Sanger, G. A. (1987a). "Trophic levels and trophic relationships of seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska." In Seabirds: feeding biology and role in marine ecosystems. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Sanger 1987a, Vermeer, K., S. G. Sealy and G. A. Sanger. (1987b). "Feeding ecology of Alcidae in the eastern North Pacific Ocean." In Seabirds: feeding ecology and role in marine ecosystems., edited by J. P. Croxall, 189-227. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Wehle ( Wehle, D. H. S. (1976). Summer food and feeding ecology of Tufted and Horned Puffins on Buldir Island, Alaska-1975. Master's Thesis, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Wehle 1980, Wehle, D. H. S. (1982b). Food of adult and subadult Tufted and Horned puffins. Murrelet 63:51-58.
Wehle 1982b, Wehle, D. H. S. (1982a). Color phases in the downy and juvenal plumages of Tufted Puffins. Condor 84:444-445.
Wehle 1982a, Wehle, D. H. S. (1983). The food, feeding and development of young Tufted and Horned puffins in Alaska. Condor 85:427-442.
Wehle 1983), Amaral ( Amaral, M. J. (1977). A comparative breeding biology of the Tufted and Horned puffin in the Barren Islands, Alaska. Master's Thesis, Univ. of Washington, Seattle.
Amaral 1977), and Vermeer ( Vermeer, K. (1979). Nesting requirements, food and breeding distribution of Rhinoceros Auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata, and Tufted Puffin, Lunda cirrhata. Ardea 67:101-110.
Vermeer 1979; Vermeer, K. and L. Cullen. (1979). Growth of Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted Puffins, Triangle Island, British Columbia. Ardea 67:22-27.
Vermeer and Cullen 1979; Vermeer et al. Vermeer, K., L. Cullen and M. Porter. (1979a). A provisional explanation of the reproductive failure of Tufted Puffins Lunda cirrhata on Triangle Island, British Columbia. Ibis 121:348-354.
Vermeer et al. 1979a, Vermeer, K., S. G. Sealy and G. A. Sanger. (1987b). "Feeding ecology of Alcidae in the eastern North Pacific Ocean." In Seabirds: feeding ecology and role in marine ecosystems., edited by J. P. Croxall, 189-227. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Vermeer et al. 1987b) conducted the earliest directed studies on Tufted Puffins and collected wholly new information on breeding biology, behavior, chick growth, diets, and habitat use in the Aleutians, Gulf of Alaska, and British Columbia. Much incidental information is also available from early general field investigations of seabird colonies (compiled in Baird, P. H. and R. D. Jones. (1983). "Tufted Puffin (Lunda cirrhata)." In The breeding biology and feeding ecology of marine birds in the Gulf of Alaska., edited by P. A. Baird and P. J. Gould, 427-469. Natl. Oceanic Atmos. Admin., OCSEAP Fin. Rep. 45: U.S. Dep. Comm.
Baird and Jones 1983, Byrd et al. Byrd, G. V., E. C. Murphy, G. W. Kaiser, A. Y. Kondratiev and Y. V. Shibaev. (1993). "Status and ecology of offshore fish-eating alcids (murres and puffins) in the North Pacific." In The status, ecology, and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific., edited by K. Vermeer, K. T. Briggs, K. H. Morgan and D. Siegel-Causey, 176-186. Ottawa, ON: Can. Wildl. Serv. Spec. Publ.
Byrd et al. 1993). Several more recent studies have added substantially to our knowledge of Tufted Puffin breeding biology ( Boone, D. L. (1986). Breeding biology and early life history of the Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirrhata. Master's Thesis, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis.
Boone 1986; Hatch and Hatch Hatch, S. A. and M. A. Hatch. (1990a). Breeding seasons of oceanic birds in a sub-arctic colony. Canadian Journal of Zoology-Revue Canadienne De Zoologie 68 (8):1664-1679.
Hatch and Hatch 1990b; Kitaysky Kitaysky, A. S. (1996). Behavioral, physiological and reproductive responses of alcids (Alcidae) to variation in food availability. Phd Thesis, Univ. of California, Irvine.
Kitaysky 1996, Kitaysky, A. S. (1999). Metabolic and developmental responses of alcid chicks to experimental variation in food intake. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 72:462-473.
Kitaysky 1999; Kitaysky, A. S. and E. G. Golubova. (2000). Climate change causes contrasting trends in reproductive performance of planktivorous and piscivorous alcids. J. Anim. Ecol. 69:248-262.
Kitaysky and Golubova 2000; Bertram, D. F., D. L. Mackas and S. M. McKinnell. (2001). The seasonal cycle revisited: interannual variation and ecosystem consequences. Prog. Oceanogr. 49:283-307.
Bertram et al. 2001; Gjerdrum, C. (2001). Nestling growth and parental provisioning of Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) on Triangle Island, British Columbia. Master's Thesis, Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC.
Gjerdrum 2001) and feeding ecology (Sanger Sanger, G. A. (1983). Diets and food web relationships of seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska and adjacent marine areas. U.S. Dep. Commer., Natl. Ocean. Atmos. Admin., OCSEAP Final Rep. 45 (1986):631-771.
Sanger 1983, Sanger, G. A. (1987a). "Trophic levels and trophic relationships of seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska." In Seabirds: feeding biology and role in marine ecosystems. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Sanger 1987a; Baird Baird, P. H. (1990a). Influence of abiotic factors and prey distribution on diet and reproductive success of three seabird species in Alaska. Ornis Scand. 21:224-235.
Baird 1990a, Baird, P. H. (1991). Optimal foraging and intraspecific competition in the Tufted Puffin. Condor 93:503-515.
Baird 1991; Hatch, S. A. and G. A. Sanger. (1992). Puffins as samplers of juvenile pollock and other forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 80:1-14.
Hatch and Sanger 1992; Springer, A. M., J. F. Piatt and G. van Vliet. (1996). Sea birds as proxies of marine habitats and food webs in the western Aleutian Arc. Fish. Oceanogr. 5:45-55.
Springer et al. 1996); in particular, monitoring studies conducted by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) on several large colonies provide continuous long-term data on breeding biology and diets (Byrd et al. Byrd, G. V., L. Climo and J. P. Fuller. (1989). Results of monitoring studies for puffins in the western Aleutian Islands in summer 1988. Adak, AK: Unpubl. rep., U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Alaska Maritime NWR.
Byrd et al. 1989, Byrd, G. V., J. C. Williams and R. Walder. (1991). Status and biology of Tufted Puffin in the Aleutian Islands after a ban on salmon driftnets. Adak, AK: Unpubl. rep. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Alaska Maritime NWR.
Byrd et al. 1991; Dragoo, D. E. and S. Woodward. (1996). Seabird monitoring at Aiktak Island, Alaska, in 1995. Homer, AK: U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. Rep.
Dragoo and Woodward 1996; Roseneau et al. Roseneau, D. G., A. B. Kettle and G. V. Byrd. (2000). Barren Islands seabird studies, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project Fin. rep. Homer, AK: U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Alaska Maritime NWR.
Roseneau et al. 2000; Williams, J. C. and J. Daniels. (2001). Biological monitoring at Buldir Island, Alaska in 1999: Summary appendices. Adak, AK: U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv.
Williams and Daniels 2001). The pelagic distribution and ecology of the Tufted Puffin has also been reasonably well documented throughout its range (Kuroda Kuroda, N. (1955). Observation on pelagic birds of the northwest Pacific Ocean. Condor 57:290-300.
Kuroda 1955, Kuroda, N. (1960). Analysis of seabird distribution in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Pac. Sci. 14:55-67.
Kuroda 1960; Shuntov Shuntov, V. P. (1972). Seabirds and the biological structure of the ocean. Vladivostok. [Translated from Russian by U.S. Bur. Sport Fish. and Wildl. and Nat. Sci. Foundation, Washington, D.C. (NTIS-TT-74-55032), 1974.]: Far-Eastern Publ. House.
Shuntov 1972, Shuntov, V. P. (1986). "Seabirds of the Sea of Okhotsk." In Seabirds of the Far East., edited by N. M. Litvinenko, 6-19. Far-eastern branch, Vladivostok: Acad. Sci. USSR.
Shuntov 1986; Hunt, Jr., G. L., P. J. Gould, D. J. Forsell and H. Peterson. (1981e). "Pelagic distribution of marine birds in the eastern Bering Sea." In The eastern Bering Sea shelf: oceanography and resources, edited by D. W. Hood and J. A. Calder, 689-718. Seattle: NOAA, Office of Marine Pollution Assessment. University of Washington Press.
Hunt et al. 1981e, Gould, P. J., D. J. Forsell and C. H. Lensink. (1982). Pelagic distribution and abundance of seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska and eastern Bering Sea. Anchorage, AK: Migratory Bird Section, Natl. Fish. Res. Center.
Gould et al. 1982; Wahl et al. Wahl, T. R., D. G. Ainley, A. H. Benedict and A. R. DeGange. (1989). Associations between seabirds and water-masses in the northern Pacific Ocean in summer. Mar. Biol. 103:1-11.
Wahl et al. 1989, Wahl, T. R., K. H. Morgan and K. Vermeer. (1993). "Seabird distribution off British Columbia and Washington." In The status, ecology and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific., edited by K. Vermeer, K. T. Briggs, K. H. Morgan and D. Siegel-Causey, 39-47. Ottawa: Can. Wildl. Serv. Spec. Publ.
Wahl et al. 1993; Piatt et al. Piatt, J. F., J. L. Wells, A. MacCharles and B. S. Fadely. (1991b). The distribution of seabirds and fish in relation to ocean currents in the southeastern Chukchi Sea. Canadian Wildlife Service Occasional Paper:21-31.
Piatt et al. 1991b, Piatt, J. F., A. Pinchuk, A. Kitaisky, A. M. Springer and S. A. Hatch. (1992). Foraging distribution and feeding ecology of seabirds at the Diomede Islands. Anchorage, AK: Final Rep. for Minerals Management Service (OCS Study MMS 92-041).
Piatt et al. 1992; Gould, P. J. and J. F. Piatt. (1993). "Seabirds of the central North Pacific." In The status, ecology, and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific., edited by K. Vermeer, K. T. Briggs, K. H. Morgan and D. Siegel-Causey, 27-38. Ottawa, ON: Can. Wildl. Serv. Special Publ.
Gould and Piatt 1993; Piatt Piatt, J. F. (1993b). Oceanic, shelf, and coastal seabird assemblages at the mouth of a tidally-mixed estuary (Cook Inlet, Alaska). Anchorage, AK: Final Rep. for Mineral Management Service (OCS Study MMS 93-0015).
Piatt 1993b, Piatt, J. F. (2002). Response of seabirds to fluctuations in forage fish density. Anchorage, AK: Fin. rep. to Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (Restoration Project 00163M) and Minerals Management Service (Alaska OCS Region). Alaska Sci. Center, U.S. Geol. Surv.
Piatt 2002; Tyler, W. B., K. T. Briggs, D. B. Lewis and R. G. Ford. (1993). "Seabird distribution and abundance in relation to oceanographic processes in the California Current system." In The status, ecology and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific., edited by K. Vermeer, K. T. Briggs, K. H. Morgan and D. Siegal-Causey, 48-60. Ottawa: Can. Wildl. Serv. Spec. Publ.
Tyler et al. 1993). For the future, studies of adult survival and recruitment would complement long-term monitoring of populations at key colonies. More attention should be directed toward conservation of dwindling and threatened populations in Japan, California, Washington, and Oregon.

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