![]() ![]() Breeding interval Tufted puffins breed once yearly.gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate).Adult puffins moult completely following the breeding season, and partially before breeding. ![]() Juveniles moult during their first winter at sea, and again the following autumn. Puffins become sexually mature at the age of three, but most do not mate until they're four. Young puffins usually do not return to the colony for almost two years, spending all their time at sea. There is no post-fledging parental care, and the puffling first leaves the nest for the open sea alone and at night. Chicks remain in the burrow and rely on their parents until they are fledged, which usually happens 45-55 days after hatching. Both parents take turns bringing food to the chicks, which happens two to three times daily, and most frequently in the morning and early evening. The difference is dependent on the feeding conditions of their location. Once the chicks hatch, their growth rate is variable between colonies and from year to year. Both parents help with incubation, which last betweeen 40 and 53 days. The peak egg-laying period usually lasts about two weeks in each colony. Eggs produced later than June are unlikely to produce fledglings. ![]() Similar behaviors occur on land at the same time, with puffins courting mates through skypointing (flying straight upwards), strutting, and billing (two birds rubbing their bills together).įratercula cirrhata usually begin breeding in April, although mating activity has been seen as early as March and as late as May in some cases.Įach female puffin lays one off-white egg, sometimes with faint blue and brown markings, usually between late April and early June. Range mass 700 to 840 g 24.67 to 29.60 ozĭuring the period prior to egg laying, large groups of puffins congregate off-shore from their nesting colony and engage in intense courtships and frequent copulations.Juvenile puffins resemble winter adults, but with a grey-brown breast, white belly, and a shallow, brown bill. Their legs and feet are red or orange-red throughout the year. When breeding ends in the early summer, puffins lose their plumes, the bright colors of the bill turn to a dull reddish-brown,and the belly is speckled with some pale brown flecks. The bill is mostly bright red, with yellow and sometimes green markings. During this time they develop a brownish-black body, with some white feathers lining the underside of the wing, a white face and glossy, yellow plumes above and behind eye. In the winter, as puffins prepare for spring breeding, their colors become more decorative, presumably to attract mates. There is also a difference in size between the sexes as male birds tend to be slightly larger than females. Size varies a little from location to location: western Pacific animals tend to be a little larger than eastern ones. (Paul 1994, Gaston 1998, Jewett 1953)įratercula cirrhata is similar in size to crows, with an average length of 15 inches, and a 15 inch wingspan. In highly populated colonies, the burrows of two or three of the animals sometimes run together. Their burrows are typically two to six feet long, and four to six inches in diameter. They prefer secluded areas where some protection is offered by their surroundings. Their stubby wings make it difficult for them to take flight from water or land without help. They prefer high places that allow them to swoop down and gain momentum. In more rocky areas, puffins build their nests in the rock and on cliff faces. They require shores with steep, grassy, sloping land with soil that allows them to burrow. (Gaston 1998)Īlthough puffins spend a majority of the year on the ocean, they build their nests on the shores of islands and coastal regions. Tufted puffins are Northern Pacific sea birds that spend a majority of the year over the Pacific Ocean, but nest along coastlines from lower California to Alaska, and across the ocean from Japan to the shores of northeastern Asia. ![]()
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