Scientific name: Lunda cirrhata
Aleut: Och-chuh
Japanese: Etopirika (Pretty Nose)
Russian: Toporok (Little Ax, apparently referring to the bill)
St. Lawrence Island:Pugharuwuk; Toporkie

Regal are those golden plumes
upon thy head
That gilded frieze, whisked by
wild windy seas.

Those golden plumes, molted for the winter months, return again along with a new bill-covering in the spring. Just as in other puffins, the head decorations, including the large orange bill, are the focal point in social communication, for vocalizations are limited to deep, agitated growls and fricative wheezings in Tufted Puffins. Birds in large colonies however, tend to be more vociferous than those in small groups. It is truly pelagic, the only Pacific alcid to ride out storms and to be seen in the open ocean during the most severe winter weather. ^{11, 344}

The Tufted Puffin tends to breed in areas close to deep water. At least 20,000 nest on the Komandorskie Islands, located at the extreme western limit of the Aleutian chain in Soviet waters. ^306,392 Northward throughout the Bering Sea and to the Arctic Sea, there are fewer Tufted Puffins than Horned Puffins. To the south, the range extends to islands of southern California where just a few are found. At the most, a hundred now breed on the Farallon Islands near San Francisco,⁵⁷¹ but northward small groups nest on many small suitable islands. A scattered few are found on islets along the Oregon coast, and recent records list 4,750 birds on Caroll Islet on the coast of Washington. ⁶²³ At least 50,000 breed on Triangle Island, British Columbia, and 6,000 inhabit Solander Island. ⁶³⁵ In 1915, estimates of 70,000 Tufted Puffins nested on Forrester Island where they outnumbered the Horned Puffin ten to one. ⁶⁵³ In 1978, in the same island, group, there were an estimated 83,700 Tufted Puffins. ⁵⁷⁰ More than 80,000 birds have been counted in colonies along the south side of the Kenai Peninsula between Cook Inlet and Seward, and more than 2.6 million nest in the territory between the Barren Islands and Unalaska. The largest concentration occurs on Kaligagan Island near Unimak where 375,000 nest, adjacent colonies swelling the number to over 528,000. About 241,000 breed on the Aleutians and 87,000 at different sites around Cape Newenham, on King, Fairway and Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, the population is only 3,600. The total estimated population for Alaskan Islands is 4 million. ⁵⁷⁰

Over about half of its range the Tufted Puffin is sympatric with the Horned Puffin. Each tends to prefer different nesting situations and the Tufted Puffin does its feeding further out to sea than does the Horned, which feeds within a kilometer or two offshore. ⁶⁴⁶ As is usually the case with sympatric species, there is not a high degree of competition unless food is scarce. Normally they cooperate in using resources; each has its own niche. Nevertheless, all seabirds are opportunists, using whatever territory and food is most available to them, and in this the puffin is no exception. To illustrate, it has been recorded that the puffin will follow fishing boats, diving to remove the bait from the hooks on long-lines. ⁶⁵³

Tufted Puffins arrive at their breeding grounds by mid-May in Alaskan areas and begin mating activities a week or two before Horned Puffins. In more southerly latitudes, they may be seen even earlier. Flocks often in the thousands, actively engage in courtship displays within a half kilometer from land. Michael Amaral describes a sequence of three distinct displays leading to mating of a pair. ⁷ The first stage called "duetting" involves the pair swimming side by side. Next, the male gapes upward, exposing his vermillion mouth-lining while the female hunches with her head drawn in closely to the body. In the third stage, the pair faces each other and bill vigorously, after which the male swims to the rear and lunges to the coitus position beating his wings continously. Only the female's head is visible above the water.

On land, in the early stages of the breeding season, the Tufted Puffin is seen displaying alone or to one another. Several actions are frequently demonstrated:7 (1) "Gaping", which varies from a passive yawn to a more precise purposeful display of the open bill; (2) "vertical-gape-posture", similar to the "ecstatic-gape" seen in other auk species. The bird stands upright, tips the head straight up, and opens its bill widely. No audible sounds are made and the display may be made either when it is alone or when others are present. This gape posture is also displayed while on the water after short splash-flights: (3) "bowed-short-flight" over water, is characterized by flight from water for a meter or two with the body arched and the bill bowed toward the sea. Undoubtedly this display has sexual significance; (4) the "strut-walk" with bobbing, seen on land when the mate arrives, and is similar to actions seen in other species of puffin; (5) the "slow-wing stretch", perhaps a sign of relaxation and as a meaningful sign to the mate. Some observers interpret this display to be aggressive; (6) the "full wing-stretch" with "head-shake", a rapid comfort movement. It rearranges feathers, stretches the muscles, and is a sign of relaxation after other activity such as flying, diving, or a disturbance; (7) "billing" and head-flick." Although common in the Tufted Puffin, these movements are not nearly as pronounced as in the Atlantic Puffin. They are gestures of mated pairs. Like the Atlantic Puffin, the Tufted prefers high turfed maritime slopes although it also digs into compacted guano deposits or chooses cavities under boulders or recesses in rocky places. On the Pribilofs, the Tufted Puffin may be seen peacefully sharing recesses of ledges with fulmars.

On Fish Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska, four nesting habitats are noted.³⁵⁰ Most burrows are within two meters of the cliff edges, and large numbers nest on the rocky slopes 20 meters of the cliff above the high tide. Limited grassy slopes, and suitable crevices on cliff faces are also used but to a lesser degree. Occasionally, the Tufted Puffin nests in unusual places. It has been known to use the recesses of shipwrecks as well as low-lying lagoons where it digs burrows barely above the waterline.²¹⁶ On a rusting shipwreck on Middleton Island, Alaska, the Tufted Puffin nests in former closets, storage bins, shower stalls, and under bunks.²⁶⁵

Burrows and cavities are used year after year. On islets in Rosario Straits of the San Juan Islands, Washington, the same holes have been occupied by the Tufted Puffins for twenty years, although not necessarily by the same pair. Between 25 May and 30 June on the Alaskan islands, one large white egg, weighing 11.4 percent of the female's body weight, is deposited. A pair of lateral brood patches is developed by both the male and female, which share the incubation duties. The body temperature of the adult averages 40° Celsius while the brood patch temperature is 38.2° Celsius.⁵³¹ If the first egg is lost early in the season, a second egg may be laid but not a third, as far as is known. In experiments involving egg recognition, Tufted Puffins incubated foreign eggs, even gull eggs.⁶⁴⁴

In the early literature the length of the incubation period was said to be between twenty-one and thirty days,64, 339 but recent studies indicate that it ranges between thirty-eight and fifty-three days averaging fourty-six days.⁶⁴⁶

Most eggs hatch between 10 to 25 July in Alaska with a range between 30 June and 5 August.⁴⁵³ Pipping takes two to twelve days and is aided by a single egg tooth. The chick hatches weighing about 58 grams, clad in a coat of smokey black down, merging to gray on the underside. It is brooded by the adults for three or four days.³⁹² By Day 35 the nestling looks like a genuine puffin. At this stage, the belly feathers may be either blackish-gray or white.⁶⁴⁷ The face is medium gray, the crown, nape back and wings are black, and the eyes are brown as opposed to the pale yellow of the adult. Chicks of Tufted Puffins fledge in forty to forty-eight days,^{453, 646} although some have been seen to stay as long as fifty-nine days before leaving their nests. It is thought that these extended stays may be due to food shortages, but this remains to be substantiated by more observations and measurements. The young bird gains approximately ten times its hatching weight before leaving for an independent life at sea. The species enjoys a reasonable breeding success: at least one study has indicated a 76 to 80 percent fledging success of all eggs monitored, and more than 90 percent of the chicks which hatched fledged successfully.⁴⁵³

In the early literature inaccurate information is duplicated from one author to another. In describing the food habits of puffins, Thomas Pennant in his Arctic Zoology (1785), says that the Tufted Puffin "feeds on crabs, shrimps, and shell-fish which it forces from the rocks with its strong bill." ⁴⁷⁶ In the next century, this statement is used again almost word for word by Thomas Nuttall in his Manual of Ornithology of the United States and Canada.⁴⁵² A.C. Bent also repeats the idea that Tufted Puffins crack the shells of mollusks.⁶⁴ While they do eat invertebrates, no one has recently reported observing them cracking mollusks. In Alaska, nonbreeders eat more invertebrates such as squid and shrimp than do breeders which tend to feed closer to shore while rearing young.³⁶

In the open sea situation, the Tufted Puffins feeds up to 15 kilometers from shore. In Rosario Strait it sometimes feeds beside the littoral feeding Pigeon Guillemot, but even here they are more frequently seen feeding in deeper waters among Rhinoceros Auklets.

Capelin and sand lance are the main food brought to the young during the breeding season.³⁶ Extra long fish, over 15 centimeters, may be carried folded, grasped by the head and tail. Otherwise, up to more than twenty smaller fish may be carried in one load. These are usually dropped in the nest cavity or fed one at a time to the young.³⁹² Peak feeding times are early in the morning and for an hour around noon.⁴⁵³ Examination of stomach contents in other seasons has revealed that squid is sometimes eaten. Of forty-two stomachs examined, almost 24 percent contained styrene particles, probably remnants of accidental blow-off from freighters.⁶⁴⁶ The facts indicate that the Tufted Puffin will take a wide variety of food items, although some foreign particles may be ingested secondarily having first been eaten by fish.

By the end of September, in the far north, all of the Tufted Puffins have left their breeding area. Now is time of life at sea until spring and hormones once again compel them to another nesting season on land. Before leaving, the juvenile completes its basic plumage and the adult molts its bill decorations and breeding color.

River otters and ravens have been known to decimate colonies in Alaska, and undoubtedly falcons and eagles take a few. Puffins however, fly rapidly at speeds of at least 60 kilometers per hour and since they also dive below the surface of the sea they can avoid avian predators unless caught at the breeding site. Red foxes, when they are present, are also known to prey heavily on Tufted Puffins. On one island more than 35 percent of the birds lost eggs or chicks and 8 percent of the adults were eaten by foxes.^{372, 486}

However, beast and bird are not the only predators. The "Toporkie", as the Tufted Puffin is called by the St. Lawrence Island people, is used by them for food and clothing. Both eggs and birds are hunted when the early breeders come to land. Nothing is wasted; skins are used to make warm coats, which are worn with the feathers on the inside, creating light and useful garments. About forty-five puffins skins are needed to make one parka.