CAPE NOME FLYBY—
Flights of puffins can sometimes be seen by glassing the waters of Norton Sound as the birds transit from their nesting cliffs to feeding areas. The second puffin was carrying fish. See this week’s installment of the Birder’s Notebook featuring puffins on
Seabird cliffs are a rich environment teaming with life and action. It is exhilarating to experience the din of thousands of calling birds, the sound of waves breaking on rock walls and the pungent smell and constant motion of birds whirling in the air, coming and going from the cliffs and alighting on the sea swells below. It can be overwhelming to the senses.
The well-fertilized tundra above the cliffs is lush with a remarkable diversity of plants and bountiful flowers. Foxes prowl accessible ledges for eggs and chicks. On the mainland, bear trails follow the cliff tops.
The sea cliffs and sea stacks of the Bering Strait region provide a summer home and nesting grounds for a multitude of seabirds including one of the most popular and widely recognized birds of all: the puffin.
These iconic seabirds are in the alcid family of birds along with murres, auklets and guillemots, all of which share the coastal cliffs and sea stacks in our region. Sometimes referred to as the penguins of the north, alcids are web-footed diving birds that “fly” under water, using their wings to propel themselves in pursuit of prey.
Two of the world’s three puffin species are found in Northwest Alaska: The “clown-faced” horned puffin and the slightly larger, more dignified-looking tufted puffin.
Thousands of horned and tufted puffins nest on the cliffs of Little Diomede, King and St. Lawrence islands. Tufted puffins in particular are also abundant on Fairway Rock.
Although the Bering Sea islands support the largest puffin colonies, puffins also nest on most coastal cliffs throughout Norton Sound. Horned puffins outnumber tufted puffins at most sites except for Fairway Rock, according to historical records.
Both species typically spend most of the year at sea, dispersed in the North Pacific, far from land. Small numbers of the birds may winter in the southern Bering Sea.
Spring migration brings puffins to the Bering Strait typically in mid-May, and to Norton Sound in late May and early June. Tufted puffins arrive about a week earlier than horned puffins.
They arrive in their eye-catching breeding plumage with colorful bills and distinctive facial markings.
Once in the vicinity of their nesting cliffs, rafts of puffins remain on the water near their territories, where they court and feed for up to a week before occupying the cliffs.
Different nesting preferences and food habits reduce competition between the species while sharing seaside cliffs.
Horned puffins favor cracks on cliff faces for nesting while tufted puffins prefer to excavate burrows up to seven feet long in the soil above the cliffs. Either species will resort to the other’s habit if their preferred sites are in short supply and both will nest between beach boulders if necessary. Individuals often reuse the same nesting sites from year to year.
Puffins lay only one egg but can lay a replacement egg if the first egg is lost. Both sexes incubate the egg.
Horned puffins have a shorter, more synchronized breeding season than tufted puffins. Peak egg laying is in late June or early July. Incubation averages 39 to 41 days. Eggs typically hatch during the first third of August.
Tufted puffins have much longer incubation period of 42 to 53 days.
Both parents care for their chick, which remains hidden in the nest until it fledges. Horned puffins feed their nestlings for 38 to 43 days while tufted puffins are on the job for up to 59 days.
The length of parental care depends on the quantity and quality of food the parents are able to find. Horned puffins generally forage close to shore within a mile of the colony and make more frequent deliveries of fish to their chick.
Tufted puffins feed further offshore and may only make a delivery every one to two days, thus slowing development of their young.
Adult puffins feed on a variety of fish, invertebrates and crustaceans, but the chicks of both species are fed fish only. Fatty, rich sand lance and capelin are critical to growth of the young.
Puffin chicks fledge throughout September, peaking around mid-month. The young are unable to fly when they leave their nest and flutter helplessly to the water below. The young puffins take the plunge in the dark of night, so it is not an easy spectacle to see.
At that point, they become independent of their parents and swim out to sea alone, with no need of parental care.
Once the young fledge the adults head back to sea, disappearing from the cliffs by early October.
The puffin’s large bill serves a variety of purposes. During the breeding season its coloration becomes more vivid for sex appeal, the large size is handy for carrying multiple fish to nestlings and it is a cooling mechanism.
Puffins are heavy birds built for diving. It is only with great effort and much wing-slapping on the water that they become airborne. Flying is hard work for them and it builds up body heat.
Their bills are full of blood vessels which radiate heat from their bodies to keep them cool during flight.
And that’s not all – King Island dancers adorn their traditional dance garments with puffin bills.
Like their more abundant relatives, murres and auklets, puffins have long been an important subsistence resource, providing Native peoples of our region and beyond with eggs, meat and warm skins for clothing.
Sadly, puffins, like many northern seabirds, are experiencing reproductive failures and population declines due to warming ocean waters and reduced availability of critical food resources.