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  Profile

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  In flight

Seabirds

Horned Puffin

Fratercula corniculata

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Pacific cousin of the Atlantic Puffin, with a fleshy 'horn' over each eye. Delivers in the same clown-bill colors.

Population

~1.2 million total individuals (over 800,000 mature), decreasing

Habitat

Marine/pelagic outside breeding season; breeds colonially on steep rocky sea cliffs and rocky islands, nesting in rock crevices or burrows on grassy slopes

Fun fact

The Horned Puffin's bill glows under ultraviolet light, a photoluminescent patch that may play a role in courtship signaling.

Range

North Pacific: coastal Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea islands, and the Russian Far East (Siberia, Kamchatka, Sakhalin); winters far offshore in the North Pacific, occasionally reaching south to British Columbia, California, and Japan

Diet

Small schooling fish (especially sand lance and capelin, also herring, cod, sticklebacks, and smelt), plus squid, marine worms, and crustaceans; dives over 30 m (100+ ft) to pursue prey and carries multiple whole fish crosswise in its bill to chicks

Size

0.38 m

Wingspan

0.58 m

Lifespan

20 years