Tufted Puffin Behaviour
Tufted Puffin Hunting & Foraging Behaviour
Chicks are fed nearly an exclusive diet of fish that their parents
catch by diving. Puffins propel themselves underwater with their
wings. The small fish are killed underwater and held in position
crosswise in the bill. Parents can carry half a dozen or more fish
this way back to the burrows to feed their chicks. Most of the
closely related species of seabirds forage and visit the nesting
colonies at night but the puffins forage and return to the
colonies during the day. Adults eat fish, squid and invertebrates.
Fishing is often done by small groups of ten or more puffins.
Tufted Puffin Nesting Behaviour
Puffins return to the colonies in April or May where they hatched
and usually to join the same mate from the previous year.
Courtship and mating occurs on the water near the nesting
islands. This includes flying upwards in a chase, strutting
around the burrow and rubbing bill tips together. Puffins nest in
underground burrows generally on steep slopes that allow them to
take flight quickly. Burrows are dug into earth using the claws on
their feet. The burrows penetrate the soil about a meter where
they widen into a chamber. There a single white colored egg is
laid in April or May. On average about half the burrows are
occupied in a given year.
Puffins defend
a small area near their burrow entrances from other puffins.
Both parents take turns incubating the
egg. After about 40-53 days of incubation the egg hatches and
both parents take turns brooding the chick and going to sea to
find food. When conditions are good, there is a lot of fish near
the colonies and the chicks grow quickly. The converse occurs when
conditions are not very good and chicks die when conditions are
poor. The number puffin chicks that flew from nests per egg
laid in 25 studies across the species range was 0 to 1.0 with an
average of 0.46 (ie 46% of all eggs resulted in flying young). The
nesting population in southern California is at the southern edge
of the range. It has been declining since 1900. After nesting,
puffins move southward far out to sea.
Tufted Puffin Vocalizations
Puffins seldom make noises but they utter a guttural chirring
sound in their burrows and the chicks peep within the burrow.
