Their most distinctive feature and namesake are the yellow tufts (Latin: cirri) that appear annually on birds of both sexes as the summer reproductive season approaches.

As a consequence, they have thick, dark myoglobin-rich breast muscles adapted for a fast and aerobically strenuous wing-beat cadence, which they can nonetheless maintain for long periods of time.

Juvenile tufted puffins resemble winter adults, but with a grey-brown breast shading to white on the belly, and a shallow, yellowish-brown bill.

[5] The Atlantic puffin acquired the name at a much later stage, possibly because of its similar nesting habits,[6] and it was formally applied to that species by Pennant in 1768.

The juveniles, due to their similarity to C. monocerata, were initially mistaken for a distinct species of a monotypic genus, and named Sagmatorrhina lathami ("Latham's saddle-billed auk", from sagmata "saddle" and rhina "nose").

[9] Tufted puffins typically select islands or cliffs that are relatively inaccessible to predators, close to productive waters, and high enough that they can take to the air successfully.

[10] During the winter feeding season, they spend their time almost exclusively at sea, extending their range throughout the North Pacific and south to Japan and California.

Breeding takes place on isolated islands: over 25,000 pairs have been recorded in a single colony off the coast of British Columbia.

Tufted puffins are preyed upon by various avian raptors such as snowy owls, bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and mammals like the Arctic fox.

[13] The Aleut and Ainu people (who called them Etupirka) of the North Pacific traditionally hunted tufted puffin for food and feathers.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) of Washington State has created aquatic reserves surrounding Smith and Minor Islands.

Not only do these islands provide the necessary habitat for many seabirds such as tufted puffins and marine mammals, but this area also contains the largest kelp beds in all of Puget Sound.