Puffin
Atlantic Puffin
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Charadriiformes Family: Alcidae Genus: Fratercula Brisson, 1760
Species
Fratercula arctica Fratercula corniculata Fratercula cirrhata For prehistoric species, see article text. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (457x640, 43 KB) copied from italian wikipedia, Author: Tomi File links The following pages link to this file: Surtsey Puffin ... Binomial name Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus, 1758) The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird in the auk family. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... Animalia redirects here. ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Aves redirects here. ... Families Thinocoridae Pedionomidae Scolopacidae Rostratulidae Jacanidae Chionididae Burhinidae Haematopodidae Recurvirostridae Ibidorhynchidae Charadriidae Pluvianellidae Dromadidae Glareolidae Stercorariidae Rhynchopidae Laridae Sternidae Alcidae Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. ... Genera Alle Uria Alca Pinguinus Cepphus Brachyramphus Synthliboramphus Ptychoramphus Cyclorrhynchus Aethia Cerorhinca Fratercula This article is about a family of birds. ... Mathurin Jacques Brisson (April 30, 1723 - June 23, 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. ... Binomial name Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus, 1758) The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is an auk with a brightly colored beak. ... Binomial name Fratercula corniculata (Naumann,JF,, 1821) The Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata) is an auk, similar in appearance to the Atlantic Puffin; this birds bill is yellow at the base and red at the tip. ... Binomial name Fratercula cirrhata (Pallas, 1769) The Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) is a medium-sized pelagic seabird about 30 cm in length and weighing about three quarters of a kilogram. ...

The common name puffin describes any of three auk species (or alcids) in the bird genus Fratercula (Latin: little brother — probably a reference to their black and white plumage, which resembles monastic robes) with a brightly colored beak in the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil. Puffin can mean Puffin unit of currency, from an unofficial coinage; see Coins of Lundy Puffin crossing, a road safety feature Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Books specialising in childrens literature Several Puffin Islands around the world Puffin Lightvessel Puffin, the bird This is a disambiguation page: a... Genera Alle Uria Alca Pinguinus Cepphus Brachyramphus Synthliboramphus Ptychoramphus Cyclorrhynchus Aethia Cerorhinca Fratercula This article is about a family of birds. ... Aves redirects here. ... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ... Diagram of the layers of the pelagic zone. ... The Sooty Tern is highly aerial and marine and will spend years flying at sea without returning to land. ...

Puffins are fat birds with large bills. They shed the colourful outer parts of their bills after the mating season, leaving a smaller and duller beak. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique under water. In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 100 times per minute) in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface. The beak—otherwise known as the bill or rostrum—is an external anatomical structure which serves as the mouth in some animals. ...

Breeding

The male Atlantic Puffin builds the nest and exhibits strong nest site fidelity. Both sexes of the Horned Puffin help to construct their nest. The burrows of the Atlantic and Horned Puffin are usually only about 1 metre (3 feet) deep, ending in a chamber, but the tunnel leading to a Tufted Puffin burrow may be up to 2.75 metres (9 feet) in length. The Atlantic Puffin burrow is usually lined with material such as grass, leaves and feathers but is occasionally unlined. The eggs of the Atlantic Puffin are creamy white but can be occasionally tinged in lilac.

Unlike many animals, puffins form long-term pair bonds. The female lays a single egg, and both parents incubate the egg and feed the chick. The incubating parent holds the egg against their brood patch with their wings. The chicks fledge at night. After fledging, the chicks spend the first few years of their lives at sea, returning to breed after three to six years.

Like many auks, puffins eat both fish and zooplankton, but feed their chicks primarily with small marine fish. The puffins are distinct in their ability to hold several (sometimes over a dozen) small fishes at a time, crosswise in their bill. This allows them to take longer foraging trips, since they can come back with more energy for their chick than a bird that can only carry one fish at a time. A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... Photomontage of plankton organisms Plankton is the aggregate community of weakly swimming but mostly drifting small organisms that inhabit the water column of the ocean, seas, and bodies of freshwater. ... Foraging just means looking for food (or, metaphorically, anything else). ...

Species

Three species are recognized today:

• Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica
• Horned Puffin, Fratercula corniculata
• Tufted Puffin, Fratercula cirrhata

The genus Fratercula probably evolved in the northern Pacific, like most lineages of auks. However, at least 2 undescribed prehistoric species are known to have occurred in the western Atlantic comparatively soon after the genus' emergence: Binomial name Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus, 1758) The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird in the auk family. ... Binomial name Fratercula corniculata (Naumann,JF, 1821) The Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata) is an auk, similar in appearance to the Atlantic Puffin; this birds bill is yellow at the base and red at the tip. ... Binomial name Fratercula cirrhata (Pallas, 1769) The Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) is a medium-sized pelagic seabird about 30 cm in length and weighing about three quarters of a kilogram. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ...

• Fratercula sp. 1 (Yorktown Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA)
• Fratercula sp. 2 (Yorktown Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, USA)

Another extinct species, Dow's Puffin (Fratercula dowi) was found on the Channel Islands of California until the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene. It is possible that it became extinct due to overhunting and egg-collecting by early human settlers. The Channel Islands of California, also called the Santa Barbara Islands, are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America. ... Late Pleistocene (also known as Upper Pleistocene or the Tarantian) is a stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. ... The Holocene epoch is a geological period that extends from the present day back to about 10,000 radiocarbon years, approximately 11,430 ± 130 calendar years BP (between 9560 and 9300 BC). ...