The Tufted Puffin is a species of seabird that is rarely seen in the wild by humans except from boats. The range of the Northern Pacific variety is from California to Japan, but they are thought to be in decline in the most southern areas of their range.  Thriving colonies still exist along the Canadian and Alaskan coastlines.

Since they are not great flyers and are rather awkward on land, they choose habitats on steep cliff sides or isolated islands to protect themselves and their nesting sites from predators.  On the other hand, their underwater swimming skills are outstanding and they spend much of their time feeding on small fish.

Some interesting facts from whatbird.com http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/241/_/Tufted_Puffin.aspx

Tufted Puffins are the size of pigeons, but weigh nearly twice as much.

When taking food to their young, they usually hold about 10 fish in their mouths while returning to the nest, but they have been observed carrying up to 60 fish in their bills at one time.

They were historically hunted for food. In the past, skins were used to make tough parkas worn feather side in.

A group of puffins has many collective nouns, including "a burrow of puffins", "a circus of puffins", "a colony of puffins", "an improbability of puffins", and a "puffinry of puffins".