Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)

Wild Birds World Editorial Team August 14, 2026 118 0

Unlike the colorful Atlantic Puffin, the Tufted Puffin has striking black plumage, a bold white face, a bright orange bill, and elegant golden plumes that appear during the breeding season. It spends most of its life far out in the North Pacific and comes ashore only to nest in burrows on remote coastal islands.

IUCN status Least Concern

Tufted Puffin, a black seabird with a white face, orange bill and golden head plumes

Tufted Puffin Overview

Fratercula cirrhata

The largest of the three puffins, and the only one with golden head plumes. Spends most of the year far out on the open Pacific.

Seabird Alcidae Burrow nester North Pacific

Species Profile

Length 13–15 in 33–36 cm

Wingspan 23–25 in 58–63 cm

Weight 1.4–2.1 lb 640–950 g

Clutch size One egg A single egg per season

First breeding About 3 years Young live entirely at sea until then

Longevity record 6 years Banding data is very sparse

Range North Pacific Ocean

Breeding sites Steep, treeless islands

Winter habitat Open ocean

Nest Burrow Dug with bill and feet

Diet Squid, krill and fish

Incubation About 45 days Shared by both parents

Scientific Classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Aves

Order Charadriiformes

Family Alcidae

Genus Fratercula Sometimes placed in Lunda

Species F. cirrhata

Described Pallas, 1769 Originally as Alca cirrhata

Common Identification

Tufted Puffin

Every part of this bird’s name comes from someone describing what they saw. A friar’s robes, a curl of hair, the head of an axe. Only the word “puffin” was borrowed from somewhere else entirely, and it did not originally belong to a puffin at all.

Name & Taxonomic Roots

Fratercula cirrhata

Fratercula (Medieval Latin Origin)

“Little friar.” The black and white plumage was thought to resemble monastic robes.

cirrhata (Latin Origin)

“Curly-headed”, from cirrus, a curl of hair. It names the golden tufts.

Puffin (Anglo-Norman Origin)

Meaning puffed or swollen, and originally the name for salted Manx Shearwater meat, not a bird. Pennant applied it to the Atlantic Puffin in 1768; it reached the Pacific species later.

Toporok (Russian Origin)

“Small axe”, for the shape of the bill. A breeding islet off Bering Island is named after it.

1. Naming & Taxonomy

Peter Simon Pallas first described the species in 1769.

The genus name Fratercula comes from Medieval Latin for friar, a reference to black-and-white plumage resembling monastic robes. The specific name cirrhata is Latin for curly-headed, from cirrus, a curl of hair, and refers to the tufts.

The Name "Puffin" Originally Belonged to a Different Bird

This is a genuinely odd piece of etymology. "Puffin," in the sense of puffed or swollen, was first applied to the fatty, salted meat of young Manx Shearwaters, an unrelated species once known as the Manks puffin. The word is Anglo-Norman, appearing in Middle English as pophyn or poffin, and it described cured carcasses rather than living birds.

Thomas Pennant applied it formally to the Atlantic Puffin in 1768, possibly because of the similar nesting habits, and it was later extended to the Pacific species.

An Unsettled Placement

The Tufted Puffin may be more closely related to the Rhinoceros Auklet than to the other two puffins, and it is sometimes placed in its own monotypic genus, Lunda.

There is also a historical curiosity in the synonym list. Juvenile Tufted Puffins look so much like Rhinoceros Auklets that they were once described as a separate species in their own genus, Sagmatorrhina lathami, meaning Latham's saddle-billed auk.

2. Identification & Appearance

A note on the wingspan: While researching the Tufted Puffin, we found conflicting wingspan measurements ranging from about 35 cm (14 in) to 58–63 cm (23–25 in). After comparing the available references, we chose to use the larger range.

Adults are primarily black with a white facial patch and a very thick bill, mostly red with some yellow and occasional green markings. Western Pacific birds run somewhat larger than eastern Pacific ones, and males are slightly larger than females.

Breeding Versus Winter

The transformation is dramatic and worth understanding, because a winter bird looks like a different animal.

In summer, both sexes grow the yellow tufts that give the species its name, the face turns bright white, and the feet become bright red. After the breeding season the tufts moult away, the face goes grey, and the plumage, bill and legs all lose their lustre.

Juveniles

Similar to winter adults but with a grey-brown breast shading to white on the belly, and a shallow yellowish-brown bill. They look very like a Rhinoceros Auklet without the horn.

3. Built for Swimming, Not Flying

The wings are short, which is the defining compromise of the auk family. They are adapted for diving, underwater swimming and pursuing prey rather than for gliding, which this bird cannot do at all.

The cost is paid in muscle. Tufted Puffins carry thick, dark, myoglobin-rich breast muscles built for a fast and aerobically demanding wingbeat, which they can nonetheless sustain for long periods.

It also explains the nesting habitat. The birds need colonies high enough to launch from, because getting airborne from flat ground or from water is hard work.

4. Range & Habitat

Fratercula cirrhata · Distribution at a glance

Pelagic

Range The North Pacific Breeding colonies ring the northern Pacific rim, from California north to Alaska and west to Japan

American Side Washington to Alaska From Washington and British Columbia through southeastern Alaska and along the Aleutian Islands

Asian Side Kamchatka and the Kurils Including colonies throughout the Sea of Okhotsk. Western Pacific birds run somewhat larger

Southern Limit A retreating edge Small numbers once nested on California's northern Channel Islands. The last confirmed sighting there was in 1997

Winter Range Deep open ocean Most of the population winters over very deep water far out in the central North Pacific

Foraging Range Over 60 miles Even while breeding, some birds commute that far to reach productive water over the continental shelf

Colony Requirements Steep and treeless Soft soil to burrow into, height to launch from, and no land predators. Islands are ideal on all three counts

Time Ashore The breeding season only Young birds may not touch land at all until they return to breed at around three years old

Preferred Habitat Types

Rocky Sea Cliffs
Grassy Coastal Cliffs
Remote Offshore Islands
Open Pacific Ocean

Preferred colonies are islands or cliffs that are hard for predators to reach, close to productive water, and high enough for easy take-off. The ideal is steep ground with soft soil and grass to dig into. Audubon notes the species prefers treeless islands throughout its range.

The southern edge of the range has retreated. The birds once nested in small numbers as far south as the northern Channel Islands off southern California, but the last confirmed sighting there was in 1997.

In winter they are almost entirely pelagic. Cornell notes that most of the population winters over very deep water far out in the central North Pacific, and that even during breeding some birds commute over 60 miles to reach productive foraging grounds on the continental shelf.

5. Diet

Fish and marine invertebrates, taken by diving from the surface. The composition varies sharply with age and location.

Adults depend largely on invertebrates, especially squid and krill. Nestlings are fed differently depending on where the colony sits: those at coastal colonies get mostly fish such as rockfish and sandlance, while those at colonies near pelagic waters get more invertebrates.

One detail hints at how they hunt. Demersal fish, which live on or near the seabed, turn up in the diet of most nestlings, which suggests the adults are feeding to some extent on the ocean bottom.

Like other puffins, they can hold a considerable number of small fish crosswise in the bill and carry the load back to the chick.

6. Breeding & Nesting

Fratercula cirrhata · Breeding at a glance

Colonial Nester

Colony Size Over 25,000 pairs Recorded in a single colony off the coast of British Columbia

Nest A dug burrow Excavated with bill and feet, sometimes a rock crevice instead. Lined with vegetation and feathers

Courtship Skypointing and billing Along with strutting. Much of it takes place on the water offshore before the pair comes ashore

Clutch Size A single egg Pure white or pale buff, without gloss, often with faint dull purplish shell markings

Laying Usually June One brood per season. There is no second attempt if the egg is lost

Incubation About 45 days Shared by both parents, and unusually long compared with land birds of similar size

Fledging 40 to 55 days The chick leaves the burrow for the open sea, and does not return to land for years

First Breeding Around three years old Birds typically return to breed at the same colony where they hatched

The burrow is lined with vegetation and feathers. Where the soil will not take a burrow, the birds use a crevice between rocks instead.

Courtship involves skypointing, strutting and billing. The single egg is pure white or pale buff without gloss, and often carries barely perceptible dull purplish shell markings.

The species has an unusually long juvenile phase at sea. Young birds may live entirely on the open ocean until they are about three, returning to land only to breed, and typically at the colony where they hatched.

One oddity in the records. The oldest recorded Tufted Puffin was six years old, banded and recovered in Alaska. That is far short of typical estimates for the species and almost certainly reflects how little banding has been done, rather than a genuinely short life.

7. Voice

Almost silent. Audubon describes the species as quiet except for occasional growling notes given around the nest site.

8. Predators & Threats

Adults are taken by Snowy Owls, Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons, and by Arctic Foxes, which appear to prefer puffins over other birds.

Two nesting behaviours counter this. Choosing inaccessible cliffs and mammal-free islands keeps terrestrial predators out, and laying the egg deep in a burrow protects it from egg-scavengers such as gulls and ravens.

A more modern threat appeared between October 2016 and January 2017, when a mass die-off of puffins occurred at St. Paul Island, Alaska. It has been attributed to ecosystem changes driven by climate change.

9. People & Culture

The Aleut and Ainu peoples of the North Pacific traditionally hunted Tufted Puffins for food and feathers. Skins were made into hard-wearing parkas worn feather side in, and the silky tufts were sewn into ornamental work. The Ainu name for the bird is Etupirka. Harvesting is now illegal or discouraged throughout the range.

On the Russian Pacific coast the bird is called toporok, meaning small axe, a reference to the shape of the bill. It gives its name to one of its main breeding sites, Kamen Toporkov, or Tufted Puffin Rock, an islet off Bering Island.

10. Conservation

The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, based on a 2020 assessment, and Cornell rates it Low Concern.

Regional protection is a different picture, particularly in Puget Sound, where the species has become scarce. Washington State's Department of Natural Resources established aquatic reserves around Smith and Minor Islands covering over 36,000 acres of tidelands and seafloor, an area that also holds the largest kelp beds in Puget Sound. Protection Island, closed to the public, holds one of the last two puffin nesting colonies in Puget Sound.

Similar Species

Swipe

Iconic seabird famous for its vibrant, multi-colored beak.

Atlantic Puffin

Penguin-like diver with a slender, pointed bill.

Common Murre

Stocky cliff-nester recognized by a distinct white bill stripe.

Thick-billed Murre

A robust, black-and-white seabird recognized by its thick, blunt bill.

Razorbill

Striking black seabird with large white wing patches.

Pigeon Guillemot

A striking coastal seabird with solid black plumage and prominent white wing patches.

Black Guillemot

A majestic pelagic seabird recognized by the distinctive dark stripe across its eyes.

Black-browed Albatross

Tiny, plump Arctic seabird that gathers in massive flocks.

Little Auk

Pacific seabird known for distinct white eye-rings.

Spectacled Guillemot

Small seabird that remarkably nests in old-growth forests.

Marbled Murrelet

A small, chunky Pacific seabird with a distinctive pale spot at the base of its bill.

Cassin's Auklet

Distinctive seabird named for the fleshy horn above its eyes.

Horned Puffin

Common Questions About Tufted Puffins

Where can I see a Tufted Puffin?

Realistically, by boat. Colonies sit on islands from central California up to Alaska, and a trip out to one during the breeding season is the reliable option. They can occasionally be seen from shore, but they tend to stay well offshore, so a spotting scope helps. Outside the breeding season, forget it: the birds are far out on the open Pacific.

What is the difference between a Tufted and an Atlantic Puffin?

Different oceans, and different colouring. The Atlantic Puffin is the small one with a white chest, the bird most people picture. The Tufted is the largest of the three puffins, entirely black underneath, and the only one with long golden plumes trailing back from the eyes. If you are in the Pacific and the bird is all black, it is a Tufted.

Why did the one I saw have no tufts?

Because it was not breeding season. The tufts are grown each summer and moulted off afterwards. At the same time the white face turns grey and the bill and feet lose their colour, so a winter bird looks like a different animal. Both sexes grow the tufts, which means they are no help in telling a male from a female.

Do puffins really shed part of their beak?

Yes. The bright outer plates of the bill are a breeding ornament, grown for the season and shed once it ends. What is left is smaller and duller until the following spring. The bill is not a permanent fixture in the way most bird bills are.

Are puffins related to penguins?

Not at all. Puffins belong to the auk family, live in the Northern Hemisphere, and can fly. Penguins live in the south and cannot. The resemblance comes from both groups solving the same problem, which is how to chase fish underwater, and arriving at similar answers independently.

How do they swim so well with such small wings?

The small wings are the reason, not a limitation. Puffins fly underwater, using the wings for propulsion rather than the feet, and short wings work better down there. The trade-off is in the air: they cannot glide at all, which is why they need a colony high enough to launch from and why the flight looks like such hard work.

Do they nest in holes in the ground?

They dig them. Using bill and feet, a pair excavates a burrow into the soft soil of a steep island slope, then lines it with vegetation and feathers. Where the ground will not take a tunnel, they use a crevice between rocks instead. The burrow does a real job: it keeps the single egg out of reach of gulls and ravens.

How many eggs do they lay?

One, usually in June, and only one attempt per year. Both parents incubate it for about 45 days, and the chick leaves the burrow 40 to 55 days after hatching. Laying a single egg makes each breeding season count, and it is part of why colony disturbance matters so much for this species.

What do they eat?

Adults live mainly on squid and krill. Chicks get fish, which the parents carry back crosswise in the bill, several at a time. What ends up in the burrow depends on where the colony sits: coastal chicks get more fish such as rockfish and sandlance, while chicks at colonies near deep water get more invertebrates.

Are Tufted Puffins endangered?

Globally they are listed as Least Concern, but that hides some sharp regional declines. They have all but vanished from the southern end of their range, with the last confirmed Channel Islands sighting in 1997, and Puget Sound is down to a couple of colonies. A mass die-off at St. Paul Island, Alaska over the winter of 2016 to 2017 was attributed to climate-driven changes in the ecosystem.

Sources & References

Last reviewed July 2026.

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