Fledglings leave the nest at between 40 and 55 days. A single egg is laid, usually in June, and incubated by both parents for about 45 days. Courtship occurs through skypointing, strutting, and billing. It is well-lined with vegetation and feathers. The nest is usually a simple burrow dug with the bill and feet, but sometimes a crevice between rocks is used instead. Ideal habitat is steep but with a relatively soft soil substrate and grass for the creation of burrows.Дuring the winter feeding season, they spend their time almost exclusively at sea, extending their range throughout the North Pacific and south to Japan and California.Д«reeding takes place on isolated islands: over 25,000 pairs have been recorded in a single colony off the coast of British Columbia. Tufted Puffins typically select islands or cliffs that are relatively inaccessible to predators, close to productive waters, and high enough that they can take to the air successfully.

They once nested as far south as southern California, but now only a few scattered colonies remain off northern California. corniculata), the range of the Tufted Puffin is generally more southern.

While they share some habitat with Horned Puffins ( F. Tufted Puffins form dense breeding colonies during the summer reproductive season from British Columbia, throughout southeastern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and throughout the Sea of Okhotsk. Juvenile puffins resemble winter adults, but with a grey-brown breast, white belly, and a shallow, brown bill. As a consequence, they have thick, dark myoglobin-rich breast muscles adapted for a fast and aerobically strenuous wing-beat cadence, which they can nonetheless maintain for long periods of time. During the feeding season, the tufts moult off and the plumage, beak and legs lose much of their lustre.ДЄs among other alcids, the wings are relatively short, adapted for diving, underwater swimming and capturing prey rather than gliding, of which they are incapable. Their feet become bright red and their face also becomes bright white in the summer.

Their most distinctive feature and namesake are the yellow tufts (Latin: cirri) that appear annually on birds of both sexes as the summer reproductive season approaches. They are mostly black with a white facial patch, and, typical of other puffin species, feature a very thick bill which is mostly red with some yellow and occasionally green markings. Birds from the western Pacific population are somewhat larger than those from the eastern Pacific, and male birds tend to be slightly larger than females. Tufted Puffins are around 35В cm (15В in) in length with a similar wingspan and weigh about three quarters of a kilogram (1.6В lbs). Since it may be more closely related to the Rhinoceros Auklet than the other puffins it is sometimes placed in the genus Lunda. Its generic name is derived from the Latin Fratercula 'little brother' and the specific epithet, cirrhata 'tufted'. The Tufted Puffin was first described in 1769 by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas. It is one of three species of puffin that comprise the Fratercula genus and is easily recognizable by its thick red bill and yellow tufts. Take precautions to protect against oil spills.The Tufted Puffin ( Fratercula cirrhata) is a relatively abundant medium-sized pelagic (open sea) seabird in the auk (Alcidae) family found throughout the North Pacific Ocean. Monitor and minimize negative impacts of ocean energy development. Prevent introduction of ground predators and human disturbance near nesting areas. Assess potential impacts from marine renewable energy projects. Investigate reasons for perceived declines. Obtain accurate population estimates for this difficult-to-survey, burrow-nesting species. This species is vulnerable to impacts from human disturbance, predators, and oil spills. Tufted Puffins require sites with minimal human or mammalian disturbance.ДЄvailability of habitat with suitable nesting substrate (soils for burrowing) is naturally limited in Oregon. They prefer steep slopes with deep soil for burrowing. Tufted Puffins nest in burrows or crevices on coastal islands and rocky headlands. This ecoregion encompasses the area from the outer boundary of OregonвЂ™s Territorial Sea to the supra-tidal zone, and up into the estuaries. The Nearshore ecoregion includes a variety of habitats ranging from submerged high-relief rocky reefs to broad expanses of intertidal mudflats in estuaries and hosts a vast array of fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, birds, plants, and micro-organisms.

Tufted puffin