Huffin’ and puffin: seabirds use large bills to dissipate heat from energetically demanding flight

Abstract

Endothermic animals regulate body temperature by balancing metabolic heat production and heat exchange with the environment. Heat dissipation is especially important during and immediately after demanding activities such as flapping flight, the most energetically expensive mode of locomotion. As uninsulated appendages, bird bills present a potential avenue for efficient heat dissipation. Puffins possess large bills and are members of the bird family with the highest known flight cost. Here, we used infrared thermography to test whether wild tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) use their bills to dissipate excess heat after energetically-expensive flight. Both bill surface temperature and the proportion of total heat exchange occurring at the bill decreased with time since landing, suggesting that bills are used to dissipate excess metabolic heat. We propose that bill size in puffins may be shaped by opposing selective pressures that include dissipating heat after flight and conserving heat in cold air and water temperatures.