Helmeted Puffin
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Helmeted Puffin, Fratercula galeatum L 40 cm, W 600-1000 g, Family: Alcidae
Description:
Stocky
seabird, about the size of a small crow, with short neck, large head, enormous
and brightly colored bill, and webbed feet. Plumage black above, white below,
with white face and wing patch. Ornate bill is tall but flattened laterally,
and during the breeding season is colored red-orange, yellow, and blue with a
large bulb or “helmet” extending above forehead. Outside the breeding season
the bill is smaller, duller, and lacks helmet. Wings, legs, and tail short. Sexes
are similar, juveniles appear ashy gray on breast and face and bill appears
like non-breeding adult bill.
Voice:
Generally
quiet, vocalizations are infrequent and soft. Most calls are low coos, purrs,
growls, or croaks, sounding somewhere between a frog and a distant chainsaw,
but alarm calls are repetitive wails which increase in volume and intensity.
Generally silent while at sea.
Range and Habitat:
Common
seabird found along all Novasolan coastlines. Breeds on rocky islands, sea
stacks, and to a lesser extent cliffs, and forages near shore, rarely beyond 50
miles from the nest. After the nesting season they disperse and spend the
winter on open ocean beyond the continental shelf and can be found mostly in
the deep North Pacific but may also use the Gulf of Alaska east of Novasola.
Juveniles may spend two to three years on open water before returning to shore
for their first breeding season.
Discussion:
As
a large, remote island in the north Pacific, and with numerous smaller
satellite islands and volcanic coastal rock formations and cliffs, Novasola is
a haven for many seabirds and hosts several breeding colonies. Among these
seabirds are a handful of endemic birds which breed nowhere else, and without a
doubt the most popular and well-recognized of them is the Helmeted Puffin, also
called the Novasola Puffin or the White-winged Puffin. This clownish, charming
bird can be found on islands and in coastal waters during the summer months
before they disappear to deep ocean. In the early days of European
colonization, the puffin was widely hunted for its meat which, coupled with the
introduction of dogs and rats on many of their breeding grounds, led to severe
population declines. Now, with many conservation efforts underway, including
using decoys to convince puffins to start new colonies on abandoned islands, Helmeted
Puffins are increasing in number and are common once again.
Helmeted
Puffins nest in large colonies on rocky islands, usually along grassy slopes in
the turf. Unlike most native seabirds, puffins nest underground, preferring to
dig burrows into the soil, but will also nest in rocky crevices where soil is
limited. The breeding adult’s large, bright bill certainly helps attract mates,
but it also serves as a great tool for excavation. Monogamous, both males and
females aid in digging the burrow, and they take turns incubating while the
other forages. They line the burrows with grasses, feathers, and occasionally
litter, especially ropes and net fiber. These burrows can be quite long, with
the longest one recorded at 2.5 meters. Females lay a single egg, and the
offspring doesn’t leave the nest until it disperses to open water at the end of
the season. Puffin colonies can get crowded, as each pair must compete for a
limited amount of space on an island, and both parents will defend burrows from
neighbors if they get too close. Instances of puffins stealing a burrow from
another pair has been recorded on numerous occasions. Once the breeding season
is over puffins migrate further out to open ocean, not to return to land until
next year. Juveniles may remain out at sea for two to three years before ever
returning to land for their first mating season.
During
the breeding season, puffins will forage close to their nesting site, rarely
travelling more than forty or fifty miles. They feed on small fish, which they
catch by diving up to fifty meters below the ocean’s surface. They are
excellent swimmers, and their paddle-like wings help them “fly” through the
water. They will bring fish back to the nest and can often be observed carrying
entire mouthfuls of fish. Outside the breeding months they still dive for fish,
but usually eat the fish while underwater before they resurface. Their
preferred food sources include small fishes like anchovy, saury, cod, herring,
sandlance, salmon, and mackerel, and in the winter they also eat invertebrates
like polychaete worms, squid, and shrimp.
Helmeted
Puffins have been an important species to indigenous tribes and European
sailors for centuries. Russian whalers and explorers called them Топорок (toporok)
or the less common морской попугай, or “sea parrots” and though they likely
did not distinguish between these and other puffin species, they hunted them
for meat both at sea and on breeding islands. The puffin was a crucial source
of food and feathers for coastal peoples across Novasola, especially Taiyalun
tribes, who not only used the bird for its meat, but also its pelt. Taiyalun
people would sew many puffin skins together into a sort of waterproof robe or
shirt, which they wore feather-side in. Puffin feathers and bills were used as
ornamentation in clothing and ritual objects. Most Taiyalun languages refer to
the bird as some iteration of qaxidaq. Indeed, Kakidaq Island west of
Vodograd, a prominent breeding colony, gets its name from the bird. Puffin
Island in the Francis Strait is also named for the bird.
As
with most endemic birds, the history of the Helmeted Puffin is one of constant man-made
population declines, a result of hunting, invasive species introductions, and
habitat loss. However, the puffin is often cited as one of the best examples of
rebound and recovery, where now after years of strict protections and
conservation efforts they are common once again. Perhaps due to their charisma,
the Helmeted Puffin has become a mascot for marine conservation efforts across Novasola,
a poster-child of conservation success stories. Indeed, the puffin is one of
the most researched birds in the state, and the protection of their breeding
habitats has helped many other rare and threatened seabirds now more at risk
than the puffin.
“The
waters to the west of the island, as with the south, are plentiful with not
just fish but birds. We have been surrounded always by countless sea parrots, flocks
of which have at times seemed to number in the thousands. They make for good
eating, and fresh, when we can pluck them from the waters as we need them.” –
Ship log fragment, Francisco Ricci voyage, 1760. Translated from Italian.
“With
the sunrise came our first glimpse of land. The rough seas seem now much more
lively with fowl, festooned with numerous seabirds, mostly puffins or sea
parrots. We have pulled thirty birds from the water in just the past hour.” – Ship
log excerpt, Morgan Fairweather, 1780
“Took
shelter from storm on Kanoox Island. After the weather passed, the crew was not
yet satisfied to leave, instead busying themselves hunting puffins. They seem
amazed at the novelty, or amused by the ease, of reaching their arms into the
earth and pulling out one puffin or two, or an egg, or shooting upwards and
killing two birds or three. Even the dog has brought back his share. Could you
see them, you would forgive me for thinking this was our purpose here all
along, and that we make our livings as fowlers and not as whalers.” – Whaler and
ship captain John Burton, in a letter to his wife, 1834
“The
Puffin, less common than the eiders and scoters and murres, is more isolated in
its nature. With the aptly named Puffin Island as the only exception, these
birds breed only along the western coast, atop far secluded and remote islands.
Rarely did I encounter large numbers of puffins, most commonly in pairs or small
groups, and usually these flocks were quick to avoid our vessel, eager to give
our ship ample space and to avoid our guns’ range. I had first encountered the
Puffin in the first days of the first expedition. Though we did not stop at
Puffin Island, our path through the Francis Strait was on occasion crossed by a
wayward puffin or two, though they must not prefer the warmer waters there, as
many of the other islands, Kanoox, Kidakaya, and indeed either of the Francis,
were entire bare of the bird, bare in fact of most seabirds. The western coastline,
more dotted with miniscule sea rocks and basalt pillars, was host to far
greater numbers of seafowl, yet still the Puffin numbered few among them.
Likely these islands and rocks are too barren for puffins, which need a hearty
layer of soil in which to dig their burrows.
…
The
puffin, with its delightful face and bumbling, oafish habits is a sight to
behold, however rare. In my years in the Fastwaters I have travelled far to
marvel and gawk at the funny creatures inelegantly fly in from sea, waddling
through the grasses with beaks overflowing with fish, only to disappear into the
earth and reappear moments later, dirtied with mud, before giving a quick growl
and flying back to the water for yet more fish.” – Native Birds of Novasola,
1912