IMPORTANCIA DE DE LOS PUFFINS EN EL MUNDO

Fratercula es un género de aves caradriformes de la familia Alcidae conocidos vulgarmente

como frailecillos. Son propios del Holártico. Los frailecillos tienen con un pico de colores
brillantes durante la temporada de cría. Son aves marinas que se alimentan principalmente
mediante buceo bajo el a

que en el Atlántico Norte hallamos el frailecillo atlántico Fratercula arctica.

Todas las especies de frailecillo tienen plumaje predominantemente negro o bien blanco
y negro, una constitución robusta, y grandes picos. Se desprenden de las partes
exteriores de colores de sus facturas después de la temporada de cría, dejando un pico
más pequeño y más apagado. Sus alas cortas están adaptadas para nadar con una técnica
de volar bajo el agua. En el aire, que baten sus alas rápidamente (hasta 400 veces por
minuto) en el vuelo rápido, a menudo volando a baja altura sobre la superficie del
océano.

Forman pareja o relaciones a largo plazo. La hembra pone un solo huevo, y lo incuban a

Atlantic puffins have penguin-like coloring but they sport a colorful beak that has led
some to dub them the “sea parrot.” The beak fades to a drab gray during the winter and
blooms with color again in the spring—suggesting that it may be attractive to potential
mates.

Swimming and Flying

These birds live most of their lives at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming.
They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to stroke underwater with a flying
motion. They steer with rudderlike webbed feet and can dive to depths of 200 feet,
though they usually stay underwater for only 20 or 30 seconds. Puffins typically hunt
small fish like herring or sand eels.

In the air, puffins are surprisingly fleet flyers. By flapping their wings up to 400 times
per minute they can reach speeds of 55 miles an hour.

Puffin Colonies and Breeding

Atlantic puffins land on North Atlantic seacoasts and islands to form breeding colonies
each spring and summer. Iceland is the breeding home of perhaps 60 percent of the
world's Atlantic puffins. The birds often select precipitous, rocky cliff tops to build their
nests, which they line with feathers or grass. Females lay a single egg, and both parents
take turns incubating it. When a chick hatches, its parents take turns feeding it by
carrying small fish back to the nest in their relatively spacious bills. Puffin couples often
reunite at the same burrow site each year. It is unclear how these birds navigate back to
their home grounds. They may use visual reference points, smells, sounds, the Earth's
magnetic fields—or perhaps even the stars.

ffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young
birds of the unrelated Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), formerly known as the
"Manks puffin".[6] Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English pophyn or poffin)
for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters.[7]

The genus contain three species.[8] The rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) has
sometimes been included in the genus Fratercula,[9] and some authors place the tufted
puffin in the genus Lunda.[10] The puffins and the rhinoceros auklet are closely related,
together composing the subfamily Fraterculini.[11]

The oldest alcid fossil is Hydrotherikornis from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while
fossils of Aethia and Uria go back to the Late Miocene. Molecular clocks have been
used to suggest an origin in the Pacific in the Paleocene.[12] Fossils from North Carolina
were originally thought to have been of two Fratercula species,[13] but were later
reassigned to one Fratercula, the tufted puffin, and a Cerorhinca species.[14] Another
extinct species, Dow's puffin (Fratercula dowi) was found on the Channel Islands