The Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata) breeds in northeastern Siberia, throughout the Bering Sea, on the Aleutian Islands and along the south Alaska coast east to Glacier Bay and Forrester Island (AOU 1957). This publication lists the bird as a winter visitor to Washington and Oregon and casual to California. They are only occasionally seen south of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, in any season (AOU 1957, Jewett et al. 1958, Gabrielson and Jewett 1940).
Thus, considerable interest was aroused when 1973 produced sightings of 10 separate birds along the West Coast of the United States and one near Victoria, British Columbia. Three birds were seen in southern California in May. June produced two records from central California and one each in Oregon and Victoria, B.C., and July showed two more birds in California and two more off Oregon. All but one record (July, Farallon Islands) were of live birds and most of these were seen from boat trips. The June record from Oregon was of a summer plumage bird seen sitting alone on a rock near Newport; it was seen between 0600 and 0630 on two consecutive days and flew off to sea both times.