Tufted Puffin

Fratercula cirrhata

Golden tassels stream back from its head in breeding season. The most flamboyant puffin in the auk family.

Population: Roughly 3 million individuals globally (2020 IUCN/USFWS assessment; other estimates range ~2.3–3.5 million+), with about 82% of the known/surveyed population stable or increasing, though the species is contracting at the southern edge of its range (California)
Habitat: Breeds in dense colonies on steep, grassy or rocky coastal islands and cliffs, nesting in burrows dug into turf (average ~34 in/86 cm long) or in rock crevices; spends the non-breeding season far offshore over deep, open North Pacific waters
Fun fact: Tufted Puffins are the largest puffin species and essentially "fly" underwater, beating their wings to pursuit-dive deeper than any other puffin — recorded to depths over 100 meters (roughly 360 feet/110 m).
Range: North Pacific: breeds from Washington and British Columbia through southeastern Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea to Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, and the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia; winters at sea as far south as California and Japan
Diet: Small schooling fish (e.g., sandlance, herring, rockfish, capelin, pollock, lanternfish) during the breeding season, delivered whole to chicks (often 5–20 fish carried crosswise in the bill at once); adults and wintering birds also take squid and invertebrates such as krill, other crustaceans, pteropods, and bristleworms, caught by pursuit-diving recorded to depths of ~360 ft (~110 m)
Size: 0.38 m
Wingspan: 0.63 m
Lifespan: 6 years

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