50% 



40% 



Calitornia Colonies 



Catalog Total 



250 birds 

 = colony sites 

 former sites 



Percent of California 

 Breeding Population. 



Clutch- 1 



Incubation Par kxl - 30 32 dayl 



Nattlirw Pariod - 50 60 day. 



Jn [ Fab. | Mar. | Apr. | May | Juna | July [ Aug. | Sep 



HISTORICAL STATUS AND VULNERABILITY 



Since the early 1900's, the Tufted Puffin's 

 range in California has contracted northward and 

 its population has declined in size. Tufted Puffins 

 were formerly found breeding in the northern 

 Channel Islands (Willett 1910), but they no longer 

 do so (Hunt et al. 1979). The southernmost 

 suspected breeding location today is Hurricane 

 Point Rocks (454 Oil) in central California. 



The Farallon Island population of Tufted 

 Puffins was once much larger than it is today. 

 The several thousand birds present in the early 

 1900's decreased in number to a low of 26 in 

 1959 (Ainley and Lewis 1974). Ainley and Lewis 

 (1974) state that oil pollution was the major cause 

 of this decline and suggest that the crash of the 

 Pacific Sardine population has been the major 

 factor keeping this population depressed. 



Elsewhere in California, little information on 

 the historical status of this species is available. 

 Tufted Puffins once nested on Blank Rock (325 

 024) during the earlier part of this century (Clay 

 unpubl. field notes), but they have since disap- 

 peared from this island, probably because of 

 soil erosion. Clay also reported Tufted Puffins on 

 Flatiron Rock (325 023) as "numerous" in 191 1, 

 but since then their nesting habitat has apparently 

 deteriorated greatly. Osborne (1972) found only 



two Tufted Puffins breeding on Flatiron Rock in 

 1970 and we list only two on this site during the 

 1979 and 1980 breeding seasons. Tufted Puffins 

 in California are concentrated around two major 

 breeding colonies: Castle Rock and South Farallon 

 Island. Floating oil near either of these islands or 

 repeated human disturbance could be disastrous 

 to the population. Fortunately, both islands are 

 protected, the former as a Nature Conservancy 

 Preserve and the latter as a National Wildlife 

 Refuge. Anyone attempting to land on either 

 island must obtain prior permission. The remain- 

 ing islands are not officially protected, but because 

 of their rugged topography and inaccessibility 

 they have so far received little attention from man. 



53 



