Background

Tufted Puffins breed along the Pacific Rim from northern California to Alaska in North America, and Japan and Russia in Asia. Named for the pale-yellow feather tufts that appear on the sides of their heads during breeding season, Tufted Puffins spend almost the entire year at sea, only coming to land to nest on offshore islands. They lay one egg per breeding pair and raise their chick, called a puffling, before making their way back to open water.

The Tufted Puffin, the largest of the puffin species, can dive up to 200 feet, fly up to 55 miles per hour, and catch and carry up to 20 fish crosswise in their specialized beak. However, despite its impressive athleticism, scientists and community groups are concerned about the decline in Tufted Puffin numbers along the shores of Washington, Oregon, and California.

Challenges

Over the last century, the Tufted Puffin’s population in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem—the meandering current flowing south from Vancouver Island to Baja California—has experienced a significant decline. In the 1900s, breeding grounds from northern California up through British Columbia hosted tens of thousands of birds. However, a 2019 species assessment by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that less than 2,000 remain. Climate change, availability of prey, pollution, and invasive plant and animal species are believed to be some of the factors in the catastrophic decline. The seabird is listed as endangered in Washington, sensitive in Oregon, and a species of special concern in California.

In Oregon and Washington, the species primarily breeds on steep, rocky islands and rocks – making it challenging to monitor burrows, habitat, and predators. Equally challenging is capturing the species to tag; despite advances in research and technology, we are still not sure where these seabirds spend their winter.

What are we doing?

In 2023, the Seabird Institute hired a Tufted Puffin Coordinator based in Portland, Oregon. Since then, a team of stakeholders, including National Audubon Society, Friends of Haystack Rock, Bird Alliance of Oregon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, American Bird Conservancy, Oregon State University, Oikonos, and others are working together to prioritize and leverage Tufted Puffin conservation efforts.

The group, focused primarily on Oregon and Washington, identified three interrelated strategies:

• Implementing conservation actions,
• Advocating for stronger policies to better protect the species, and
• Raising the profile of the Tufted Puffin through public outreach and engagement.

Though we do not yet fully understand all the reasons the population is decreasing, we do have the benefit of our experience with Atlantic Puffins – as well as the continuing research and newly coordinated effort – to help guide us towards stopping the decline of the iconic Tufted Puffin.