The 18 most-wanted birds in North America
Atlantic Puffin
1. A colorful, triangular bill is this bird’s most distinguishing feature. The size of the bill and the number of grooves in it increase as the bird ages, factors that puffins may use to assess potential mates. 2. Project Puffin, a productive effort to return puffins to Eastern Egg Rock and other nesting islands off the coast of Maine began in the 1970s and ’80s. Its success has depended, in part, on “puffineers,” observers who live on the island all summer and work hard to keep Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls at bay. The gulls prey on puffin chicks. 3. The puffineers probably never expected they’d also have to deal with river otters, but last summer they did. Two marauding otters, the first ever observed on Eastern Egg Rock, ate adult puffins and chicks, reducing the population from 123 to 104 breeding pairs before they were removed in July. 4. A more worrisome threat for puffins is rising sea temperatures. 5. Puffins thrive in seas between 32-68° F (0-20° C). In 2012, biologists recorded the warmest waters to date for the Gulf of Maine and documented the earliest-ever plankton bloom. 6. This caused butterfish, a favored prey, to grow faster sooner. When the birds brought the butterfish back to their burrows, many were too big for the chicks to swallow. 7. No matter what they’re catching, prime fishing hours for puffins are 4-8 a.m. and 4-8 p.m., according to a recent study in which temperature depth recorders were affixed to birds’ legs. 8. Puffins remained underwater for less than a minute and dove to an average depth of 33 feet. 9. Little is known about puffins’ whereabouts after the breeding season, but huge flocks have been spotted southwest of Greenland and between Greenland and Iceland, suggesting they sometimes gather in great numbers. 10. More insights into winter movements were gained recently when geolocators were retrieved from two puffins at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge. The devices showed that the birds had flown north into the gulfs of Maine and St. Lawrence, and one winter, one of the birds continued north into the Labrador Sea.
1. A colorful, triangular bill is this bird’s most distinguishing feature. The size of the bill and the number of grooves in it increase as the bird ages, factors that puffins may use to assess potential mates. 2. Project Puffin, a productive effort to return puffins to Eastern Egg Rock and other nesting islands off the coast of Maine began in the 1970s and ’80s. Its success has depended, in part, on “puffineers,” observers who live on the island all summer and work hard to keep Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls at bay. The gulls prey on puffin chicks. 3. The puffineers probably never expected they’d also have to deal with river otters, but last summer they did. Two marauding otters, the first ever observed on Eastern Egg Rock, ate adult puffins and chicks, reducing the population from 123 to 104 breeding pairs before they were removed in July. 4. A more worrisome threat for puffins is rising sea temperatures. 5. Puffins thrive in seas between 32-68° F (0-20° C). In 2012, biologists recorded the warmest waters to date for the Gulf of Maine and documented the earliest-ever plankton bloom. 6. This caused butterfish, a favored prey, to grow faster sooner. When the birds brought the butterfish back to their burrows, many were too big for the chicks to swallow. 7. No matter what they’re catching, prime fishing hours for puffins are 4-8 a.m. and 4-8 p.m., according to a recent study in which temperature depth recorders were affixed to birds’ legs. 8. Puffins remained underwater for less than a minute and dove to an average depth of 33 feet. 9. Little is known about puffins’ whereabouts after the breeding season, but huge flocks have been spotted southwest of Greenland and between Greenland and Iceland, suggesting they sometimes gather in great numbers. 10. More insights into winter movements were gained recently when geolocators were retrieved from two puffins at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge. The devices showed that the birds had flown north into the gulfs of Maine and St. Lawrence, and one winter, one of the birds continued north into the Labrador Sea.
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