Horned Puffin

• It grows a small fleshy "horn" above each eye in the breeding season.
• It can delay fertilisation of the egg after mating on land.
• It is vulnerable to oil spills despite its favourable conservation status.
• anatomíaIt can hold several small fish in its bill at once, thanks to backward-pointing spines on the palate and tongue that stop the catch slipping out while it goes on fishing.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - pneumatised bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Rocky coasts and islands of the North Pacific, from Alaska and British Columbia to Siberia, wintering out at sea

Birth weight

Exact weight at hatching not found as a precise figure

Size at birth

Altricial, unable to regulate its body temperature until it is over a week old

Sexual maturity

Not precisely known (maturity comes after several years at sea, before it returns to breed)

Gestation / incubation

38-43 days (average 40 days)

Litter / clutch size

1 egg per clutch

Sources consulted: SeaLifeBase; NHPBS NatureWorks; Animal Diversity Web; A-Z Animals; AnimalHub; Encyclopedia of Puget Sound; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; PBS Nature

Best time: From May to August at the colonies in Alaska, the Aleutians and Kamchatka; the rest of the year it is pelagic and is not seen from land.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.