Horned Puffin

Fratercula corniculata (Naumann, JF, 1821)

Horned Puffin, Fratercula corniculata, breeds across the Arctic to temperate North Pacific coasts of the Palearctic and North America, from Wrangel Island and the Bering Sea islands to Alaska and British Columbia. Outside the breeding season it remains pelagic and coastal in the North Pacific, mostly within the same broad region. It is an auk of steep rocky shores and cliffs, where it uses crevices or shelters among rocks rather than digging burrows. Adult birds are marked by a small black horn above the eye, which gives the species its name and sets it apart from other puffins.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Alcidae — Auks

Breeding range

Palearctic, North America: Arctic to temperate North Pacific coasts: Wrangel I. (n of ne Siberia), Beaufort Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Kuril and Commander is. (e Russia), Bering Sea is., Aleutian Is. and patchily n, w, s Alaska to British Columbia

Nonbreeding range

pelagic and coastal in North Pacific Ocean, mostly within limits of breeding range