This is Bird Note.

Puffins are boldly colorful icons of northern islands and sea cliffs,

where they nest in dense colonies during the summer.

In the spring, puffins grow thin, blazingly colorful layers over the base of their huge beaks.

Some species beaks turn vivid yellow, others a bright red or orange, and they make all kinds of

noise.

In winter, however, puffins lead very different lives.

For one thing, winter puffins are not nearly as fancy.

Once their chicks fledged in late summer, adult puffins shed the ornaments that wowed their

mates in spring.

Their beaks turn a dull orange, and their bright white summer faces turn a sooty color. Tufted puffins, named for their

long, blonde head tufts, go tuft less in winter. Horned puffins lose the fleshy horns above their

eyes. And puffins in winter go silent as well. The birds depart their nesting cliffs by September, and head for the open ocean.

Three species winter in the North Pacific, and one in the North Atlantic.

Puffins remain largely solitary for the seven months of the year they spend at sea.

But as winter gives way to spring, the clowns of the cliffs return, once again outfitted in their finest colors.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.