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Deepseawaters
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Sea BirdsHorned Puffin
Horned Puffin
Common Name: Horned Puffin
Scientific Name: Fratercula corniculata
Description
About 1.2 million Horned Puffins
breed in the North Pacific, almost exclusively in
Siberia and Alaska. Unlike Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins
find cozy crevices in rocky cliffs to lay their eggs and raise
their chicks. Horned Puffins lay only one
plain white egg. Like all others members of the Alcidae family,
both parents incubate the egg and raise the growing chick.
Each parent shares mealtime duties by carrying up to 15 fish
at once back to the chick. Both the adult and chicks like
feast on small fish, squid, and sometimes krill. It can take
Horned Puffin chicks as long as fifty days in the
nest to grow big enough to go to sea!
Identification Tips
Length: 11.5 inches
Sexes similar
Immature similar to adult basic but bill is smaller and darker
Medium to large alcid that dives for food from water surface
Very large bill
Black crown, nape, throat, and upperparts
White breast, belly and undertail coverts
Red legs and feet
Pelagic bird only coming ashore to breed
Inhabits open ocean habitats and coasts
from Alaska south (rarely) to California
Adult Alternate
Extremely colorful bill-yellow at base and red at tip
White, triangular face patch
Hornlike projection from top of eye
Thin, dark line from eye to nape
Adult Basic
Duller bill lacks yelow plate at base
Gray, triangular face patch
Similar Species
The Horned Puffin is most
similar to the Tufted Puffin. In alternate
plumage, the Horned Puffin lacks yellow tufts
on the face and has white, not black, underparts. In winter,
the gray face and white underparts of the Horned Puffin
can separate them. Atlantic Puffin does not
overlap in range and has a different bill pattern.
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