For a species that is so readily identified, there is much we do not know about this comical looking species. The tufted puffin is the largest puffin in the north Pacific Ocean weighing about 780 grams. It gets its name from two yellowish plumes that extend from the back of the head of breeding adults. About 3.5 million tufted puffins nest between the Farallon Islands in California north along the North American coast and west to the Chukchi Sea in eastern Russia.  Most puffins nest in Alaska where about 1.3 million nest on the Aleutian Islands and another 1 million nest in Alaska Peninsula.

Males and females resemble one another.

References

Byrd et al. 1993. The status, ecology, and conservation of marine birds of the North Pacific. Pp. 176-186 in K. Vermeer, KT Briggs, KH Morgan and D. Siegel-Causey. Special Publication, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa.

Gaston, A.J. and I. Jones. 1998. The auks. Oxford University Press, London.

Gjerdrum, C, A. M. J. Valle´e, C. Cassady St. Clair, D.F. Bertram, J.L. Ryder, and G.S. Blackburn. 2003.  Tufted puffin reproduction reveals ocean climate variability. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 100: 9377–9382.