Long Way Education

May 28, 2022

By Eman Abdallah Kamel

Eman is a writer and engineer. She is interested in writing about birds, animals, plants, and many other topics.

Puffins

Puffins are small birds of the genus Fratercula. These pelagic seabirds feed mainly by diving into the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal slopes or offshore islands. Puffins nest in crevices between rocks or burrows in the soil.

The puffin is a stocky bird with short wings and a short tail. The head has a black cap, the face is white, and the feet are orange-red.

Puffin birds have black or black-and-white plumage. Their large beaks get brightly coloured during the breeding season. Puffins shed the colourful outer parts of their bills after the breeding season, leaving a smaller, paler beak. They use their short wings to swim underwater, using a flying technique. And often flying low over the ocean’s surface.

Although the birds congregate in large numbers to breed, they spend two-thirds of their lives alone in the North Atlantic. Hence, it is very difficult to notice. Therefore, researchers know little about puffins.

Puffin Species

There are three main species of puffins:

1. Atlantic Puffins,
2. Horned Puffins,
3. Tufted Puffins.

1. The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) looks like a penguin but has a shiny beak. They can dive to a depth of 200 feet. Although they usually only stay underwater for 20 or 30 seconds, puffins can hunt small fish such as herring or eels.

During the flight, they flap their wings 400 times per minute, which allows them to reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour.

Every spring and summer, Atlantic puffins breed on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic.

About 60% of the world’s Atlantic puffins breed in Iceland.

The birds often choose rocky clifftops to build their nests. Females lay one egg, and parents take turns incubating it. Also, when a chick hatches, the parents take turns feeding it.

2. Horned puffins (Fratercula corniculata) are black and white with a beautiful orange and yellow bill. Its horns are small, fleshy spines that extend above the eyes of breeding adults. Horned puffins usually nest on cliffs in Siberia, Alaska, and northern British Columbia.

They dive 100 feet or more to catch small fish. These seabirds spend the winter offshore in the Pacific Ocean.

Horned puffins fly at a speed of about 10 to 30 meters above sea level. They fly in groups of about two to fifteen birds.

3. Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) are found throughout the high latitudes of the North Pacific. These birds spend the winter at sea. During spring and summer, they nest in coastal colonies from California north to Alaska. From Siberia south to Japan.

Stocky, about the size of a football, with a short neck, a large head, broad wings, a huge laterally flattened beak, a short tail, short legs, and large webbed feet. In the breeding season, they have pale yellow head plumes. The red-rimmed eyes and massive red beak offset the brilliant white face. During non-breeding months, they are grey-faced with few plumes, and their beaks are orange and grey.

Young birds may live in the ocean and return to land when they are 3 years old to breed on the nesting cliff where they hatch. According to an article written on birds.cornell.edu, a puffin can live up to 6 years.

The tufted puffin can catch many small fish in its beak crosswise for delivery to the chicks in the nest.

Did You Know?

In April 2015, the tufted puffin was listed as endangered by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Threats

• The tufted puffin was once common in Washington along the outer coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands. Many breeding colonies in the state have disappeared. Reasons for the decline may include reduced prey availability, predation in nesting colonies, human disturbance, or climate change.
• Tufted puffins are also on the verge of extinction in Japan, with a few pairs spotted on the northern island of Hokkaido despite local conservation efforts. Today, it can be found in the country only on two uninhabited islands located off Nemuro in eastern Hokkaido.
• Although there are about 450,000 puffin birds in the UK, the species is threatened with extinction due to the rapid and continuous decline in its numbers. Surveys of the Farne Islands have revealed that despite a steady increase over the past 70 years, the numbers have fallen by as much as 42% over the past few years.
• Puffins have a low reproductive rate, laying only one egg per year. When exposed to negative changes in the environment. It takes a long time to recover.
• According to the researchers, birds living in the Arctic face a higher risk of predators breaking into their nests due to climate change, which may alter the behaviour and habitats of animals, such as foxes, that steal eggs.
• Living in the open ocean makes puffins very vulnerable to water pollution.
• According to an article written on researchgate.net, sea temperatures have risen over the past 30 years, causing spillover effects on puffins’ survival. High temperatures reduce the abundance of plankton, which reduces the growth and survival of the young herring that puffins feed on, especially during the breeding season. Conditions in the North Sea have also caused some puffins to move to the Atlantic Ocean rather than the North Sea in search of food. This makes puffins more vulnerable due to habitat change.

Conversation Efforts

There are many global calls and contributions to protect seabirds from extinction, including puffins.

• For example, since the 1990s, the Scottish Wildlife Trust has been monitoring and protecting the puffin colony at Handa Island Wildlife Sanctuary, owned by Scourie Estate and managed in partnership with the Trust.
• Trust’s Living Seas aims to protect and engage people in the marine environment in hopes of preserving puffins.

Solutions

To conserve the environment from pollution and protect puffins and other seabirds from extinction, try following these tips:

1. Do not throw plastic bottles and bags into the water.

2. Volunteering to clean beaches of waste.

3. Climate change has led to a warming of the seas, which has led to a shift in the distribution of cold-water fish that puffins feed on, meaning that the number of chicks in the nests has decreased due to a lack of nutrition. If we want to tackle global climate change, we must all do our part by reducing our carbon footprint, reducing environmental pollutants, and increasing tree planting.

Sources

• www.nationalgeographic.com
• www.birds.cornell.edu
• wdfw.wa.gov
• english.kyodonews.net/ tufted puffins nearing extinction in Japan with few recent sightings.
• www.researchgate.net… Effect of the wintering area and climate on the survival of adult Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica in the eastern Atlantic.
• scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk

©Eman Abdallah Kamel, 2022

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