First record of horned puffin in the North Atlantic and tufted puffin in High Arctic Greenland

• Published in: Polar Research
• Main Authors: Kurt K. Burnham, Jennifer L. Burnham, Jeff A. Johnson, Bridger W. Konkel, Jack Stephens, Hannah Badgett
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 2020
• Subjects: transarctic movement; sea ice; north-west passage; range shift; fratercula corniculate; fratercula cirrhata; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Greenland; Pacific; Arctic Archipelago; Atlantic puffin; fratercula; North Atlantic; North West Passage; Polar Research; Sea ice; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4458; https://doaj.org/article/2f9850ef54ba46698d5b4937f85968c9

An accelerating decrease in summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic Ocean and Canadian Arctic Archipelago (North-west Passage) is predicted to increase the movement of species between the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans. Here we report observations of two Subarctic North Pacific puffin species in the North Atlantic near the coast of north-west Greenland. We observed a horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata) repeatedly during the summer months of 2002–06 and 2013–19 and a single tufted puffin (F. cirrhata) in 2019. While single tufted puffins have been observed a few times in the North Atlantic, this is the first record of a horned puffin in the North Atlantic, and the first record for both horned and tufted puffins in north-west Greenland. In 2019, both puffin species were observed simultaneously at an Atlantic puffin (F. arctica) colony.