Tufted Puffin Science

Much of the research of tufted puffins has been made at their breeding colonies. The research has provided us with a picture of the range of conditions that make a nesting season a success. Years with plentiful food result in many chicks leaving their nests but when food is scarce, widespread failure occurs. Like most other seabirds, adult’s readily abandoned their chicks to save themselves when food is scarce. The young puffins can judge the amount of food the parents are bringing to the burrow and adjust how long they remain in the burrow. When food is scarce, they leave the burrow earlier than when food is plentiful. Carina Gjerdrum and her co-workers (2003) showed that varying reproductive performance by tufted puffins was related to changes in sea surface temperature presumably because cool ocean water coincides with strong ocean upwelling that provides food for the ocean food chain including small fish puffins feed their chicks.