After many poor summers for puffins of Scotland, the "clowns of the sea" are getting ready to leave the country after a good breeding season, said experts.

According to the Scottish Seabird Centre, in the recent years, changes in habitat and food that have been brought on by climate change have created difficult conditions for breeding puffins but early indications show that Scotland has enjoyed a positive breeding season this time.

With pufflings hatched and ready to take flight, visitors to Scotland have just a few weeks left before the birds leave the northern shores of Britain in August.

The birds with brightly coloured beaks which stay with one breeding partner for life and return year after year to the same nests arrive in Scotland around mid-March to breed. After mating, the female puffin lays one egg which is incubated by the male as well as the female. Pufflings, once they hatch, are strong enough to leave the burrow after they are four to five weeks old and will take flight with the rest of their colony in August.

Puffins along with other birds like May, Craigleith, Fidre and Shetland come to the Scottish islands to breed, said the chief executive, Tom Brock.

"It looks like it has been a good breeding season for puffins", said Brock. "They have had lots of problems in the last few years with climate change, lack of food and winter storms but early indications are that it's going to be a good breeding season for them".