Tufted Puffin (Lunda cirrhata) 



Tufted Puffins are among the most abundant 

 and conspicuous of the seabirds in the North 

 Pacific, although they are the least common 

 alcid nesting in California. The species' center of 

 abundance appears to be the western Gulf of 

 Alaska and the Aleutian Islands (Sowls et al. 

 1978). These colorful, comical seabirds can often 

 be seen standing in front of their nesting burrows, 

 especially in early morning. 



Tufted Puffins usually nest in earth burrows 

 at the edges of cliffs or on the grassy slopes of 

 islands. Tufted Puffins in California also use 

 burrows or small caves found in loose sandstone 

 or unconsolidated conglomerate rock. In 

 California, extensive areas of ideal nesting habitat 

 exist on only a few islands, so many colonies are 

 small and undoubtedly will remain so. Except on 

 the Farallon Islands, lack of adequate nesting 

 habitat may ultimately be one of the major factors 

 limiting expansion of the Tufted Puffin population 

 in California. 



Tufted Puffins can sometimes be observed 

 carrying fish in their bills to their chicks at 

 colonies. Preferred foods include small fish, 

 cephalopods, and crustaceans (Hatch et al. 1979). 

 Although Tufted Puffins are diurnal, fledglings 

 apparently leave their burrows and go to sea only 

 under cover of darkness. In fall, adult puffins lose 

 their brightly colored bill sheathes. Both fledglings 

 and adults head far to sea and during winters are 

 only occasionally seen near land. 



CALIFORNIA COLONIES 



Tufted Puffins are found from Prince Island 

 (325 003) in northern California south to 

 Hurricane Point Rocks (454 Oil) at the northern 

 tip of the Big Sur coast. We list 14 sites at which 

 Tufted Puffins have been recorded but breeding 

 has been recently documented at only five of 

 these: Prince Island, Castle Rock (325 006), 

 Green Rock (325 020), Puffin Rock (325 021), 

 and the Farallon Islands (429 012). With the 

 exception of Little River Rock (325 035), Tufted 

 Puffins have been observed near burrows at the 

 remaining sites. Although Harris (1974) listed 

 Tufted Puffins as possible breeders on Little 

 River Rock, where the habitat appears suitable for 

 this species, we did not observe birds there. 

 Tufted Puffins were regularly observed at Piedras 

 Blancas Rock (477 007) in 1979 (Rauzon pers. 

 comm.), but not in 1980 (Ron Jameson pers. 

 comm.). 



The largest Tufted Puffin colonies in 

 California are on Castle Rock and the Farallon 

 Islands. Each contains about 100 birds (Ainley 

 pers. comm. this study). All remaining locations 

 contain ten or fewer birds. Most Tufted Puffin 

 colonies in Califonia have been identified, but a 

 few undocumented pairs may be present at 

 scattered locations , primarily in northern Cali f ornia . 



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