bird of the day: tufted puffin

the tufted puffin is a medium-sized seabird in the auk family found throughout the northern pacific ocean.

both male and female tufted puffins have yellow tufts throughout the breeding season. in winter, these tufts are lost, and their plumage becomes a duller color.

puffins have relatively short wings, adapted more for diving than gliding.

tufted puffins form massive breeding colonies, numbering in the thousands, on remote islands to protect their eggs and young from predators. the puffins lay only one egg per breeding season.

tufted puffins feed mainly off of fish, but also feed off of squid or other underwater prey.

the tufted puffin is currently rated as least concern by the iucn, but as of recently, their population size has been decreasing.

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