Atlantic puffin
| Atlantic Puffin | |
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| Adults in breeding plumage, Lunga (Treshnish Isles, Scotland) | |
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| Species: | F. arctica
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| Binomial name | |
| Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus, 1758)
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Alca arctica Linnaeus, 1758 | |
The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic is its brightly colored beak during the breeding seasons. Also known as the Common Puffin, it is the only puffin species which is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The curious appearance of the bird, with its colorful huge bill and its striking piebald plumage, has given rise to nicknames such as "clown of the ocean" and "sea parrot".
Description
The Atlantic Puffin is 28–34 cm (11-13.5 in) in length, with a 50–60 cm (20-24 in) wingspan. The male is generally slightly larger than the female, but they are colored alike. This bird is mainly black above and white below, with gray to white cheeks and red-orange legs. The bill is large and triangular, and during the breeding season is bright orange with a patch of blue bordered by yellow at the rear.[1] The characteristic bright orange bill plates grow before the breeding season and are shed after breeding. The bills are used in courtship rituals, such as the pair tapping their bills together.[2] During flight, it appears to have grey round underwings and a white body; it has a direct flight low over the water. The related Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata) from the North Pacific looks very similar but has slightly different head ornaments.
The Atlantic Puffin is typically silent at sea, except for soft purring sounds it sometimes makes in flight. At the breeding colonies the birds make a deep growl
THIS THE BEST BIRD EVER. IT REMINDS ME OF A PENGUIN.
Relationship with humans
Status and conservation
The population of these birds was greatly reduced in the nineteenth century, when they were hunted for meat and eggs. Atlantic Puffins are still hunted and eaten in numbers, but at present this does not generally affect populations much - at least compared to other threats. On the Faroe Islands, for example, the birds may be hunted for local consumption after breeding is finished, as then an excess number of birds is available.
More recent population declines may have been due to increased predation by gulls and skuas, the introduction of rats, cats, dogs and foxes onto some islands used for nesting, contamination by toxic residues, drowning in fishing nets, declining food supplies, and climate change.[3]
On the island of Lundy the number has decreased dramatically in recent years (the 2005 breeding population was estimated to be only two or three pairs) as a consequence of depredations by black rats (recently eliminated) and possibly also as a result of commercial fishing for sand eels, the puffins' principal prey.
On the other hand, puffin numbers increased considerably in the late twentieth century in the North Sea, including on the Isle of May and the Farne Islands. Numbers have been increasing by about 10% per year in recent years. In the 2006 breeding season, about 68,000 pairs were counted on the Isle of May. However, Iceland has many times as many breeding pairs with the Puffin - lundi in Icelandic - the most populous bird on the island. In 2008 declines were reported in the Farne Islands and Isle of May colonies.[4]
Reintroduction projects have taken place on a number of islands, including one on the coast of Maine titled Project Puffin, and these have given local boosts to some Puffin populations.
Since the Atlantic Puffin spends its winters on the open ocean, it is susceptible to human impacts such as oil spills. If an accidental oil spill occurs and pelagic birds are exposed, toxins are inhaled or ingested which leads to kidney and liver damage. This damage can contribute to a loss of reproductive success and damage to developing embryos.[5]
Oil spills may also have indirect effects. The Atlantic Puffin and other pelagic birds are excellent bioindicators of the environment because they are near the top of the food chain in the ocean. Since the primary food source for Atlantic Puffins is fish, there is a great potential to bioaccumulate heavy metals from the environment. Heavy metals enter the environment through oil spills - such as the Prestige oil spill on the Galician coast - or from other natural or anthropogenic sources. In order to determine the effects on pelagic birds such as the Atlantic Puffin, quantifiable measurements must be taken. In the field, scientists obtain contaminant measurements from eggs, feathers or internal organs.[6]
Since the Atlantic Puffin gets the majority of its food from diving it is important that there is an ample supply of resources and food. Different environmental conditions such as tidal cycle, upwellings and downwellings contribute to this abundance. In a study published in 2005[7] it was observed that Atlantic Puffins were associated with areas of well-mixed water below the surface. This study implies consequences for the species if impacts of global warming lead to an alteration of tidal cycles. If these cycles are modified too much, it is probable that the Atlantic Puffin will have a difficult time locating food resources. Another consequence of an increase in temperature could be a reduction in the range of the Atlatic Puffin, as it is only able to live in cool conditions and does not fare overly well if it has to nest in barren, rocky places, and an increase in temperature could thus squeeze the zone of puffin-suitable habitat as warmer biotopes expand from the equator but the polar regions remain barren due to lack of historical accumulation of topsoil.
This is the atalntic puffin place. its endangered
Gallery
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Adult in nest cavity, Machias Seal Island, Gulf of Maine -
On Machias Seal Island, Gulf of Maine -
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At Látrabjarg, Iceland
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On Machias Seal Island, Gulf of Maine -
Breeding grounds on Lunga, Treshnish Isles
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On Mykines, Faroe Islands
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Adult in flight
Footnotes
- ^ Street & Emily (1999)
- ^ Project Puffin: Puffin videos. Retrieved 2008-JAN-13.
- ^ Mitchell et al. (2004)
- ^ BBC News " Unexpected fall in puffin numbers", 25 July 2008
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ehrlichetal1988was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Perez-Lopez et al. (2006)
- ^ Ladd et al. (2005)
References
- Alsop, Fred J. III (2001): Atlantic Puffin. In: Smithsonian Birds of North America, Western Region: 451[verification needed]. DK Publishing, Inc., New York City. ISBN 0-7894-7157-4
- Ehrlich, P.; Dobkin, D. & Wheye, D. (1988): Atlantic Puffin. In: The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to The Natural History of North American Birds: 207, 209-214. New York.
- Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Churchill, Wendy; Dalziel, Alex & Rice, Vanessa (1998): Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Emblems. Version of August 1998. Retrieved 2008-JAN-13.
- Harrison, Peter (1988): Seabirds (2nd ed.). Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7470-1410-8
- Ladd, C.; Jahncke, J.; Hunt, G.L.; Coyle, K.O. & Stabeno, P.J. (2005): Hydrographic features and seabird foraging in Aleutian Passes. Fisheries Oceanography 14(s1): 178-190. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2419.2005.00374.x (HTML abstract)
- Lilliendahl, K.; Solmundsson, J.; Gudmundsson, G.A. & Taylor, L. (2003): Can surveillance radar be used to monitor the foraging distribution of colonially breeding alcids? [English with Spanish abstract] Condor 105(1): 145–150. DOI: 10.1650/0010-5422(2003)105[145:CSRBUT]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
- Mitchell, P.I.; Newton, S.F.; Ratcliffe, N.; Dunn, T.E. (2004): Seabird Populations of Britain and Ireland: Results of the Seabird 2000 Census (1998–2002). T. & A.D. Poyser, London. ISBN 0-7136-6901-2
- Perez-Lopez, M.; Cid, F.; Oropesa, A.; Fidalgo, L.; Beceiro, A. & Soler, F. (2006): Heavy metal and arsenic content in seabirds affected by the Prestige oil spill on the Galician coast (NW Spain). Science of The Total Environment 359(1-3): 209-220. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2005.04.006 (HTML abstract)
- Street, R. & Emily, A. (1999): Animal Diversity Web - Fratercula arctica. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
External links
