Why Seabirds Follow Boats — And What Sailors Can Learn From Them
Updated: Oct 16
Sometimes you are sailing along with nothing around you except sea and sky, and suddenly you have company.
One bird appears behind the boat. Another crosses the bow. A little later, something with very long wings seems to be gliding beside you without making any effort at all.
And naturally, we make it about ourselves.
Why is that seabird following our boat?
Sometimes it may be interested in the boat. Sometimes it is looking for food. Sometimes you are simply travelling through the same patch of sea.
And sometimes, I suspect, the bird could not care less about you.
Still, seabirds are worth watching. Not because they are secret navigation instruments, but because their behaviour can give you little clues about what is happening in the water around you.
Why Do Seabirds Follow Boats?
Fishing boats are the obvious attraction.
Where there is bait, discarded fish or an easy meal, birds learn very quickly that boats can be useful places to hang around.
A cruising sailboat is different. We are not normally towing a floating buffet behind us.
A gull or shearwater flying near the boat may simply be travelling in the same direction, investigating something unusual or searching the same area for food.
So I would be careful with the idea that every seabird behind a sailboat is specifically “following” it.
We sailors already do this with dolphins. They appear at the bow and immediately it feels personal — as though they saw our boat from two miles away and decided we seemed nice.
There are real reasons dolphins spend time around moving boats, of course, and we look at those in Why Dolphins Follow Boats (And When They Don’t).
With birds, the answer can be much less dramatic.
You may simply be sailing through their lunch.
Watch What the Birds Are Actually Doing
One bird flying past your mast does not tell you very much.
Ten birds repeatedly diving into the same small patch of water?
Now I would look.
Seabirds often gather where prey is close enough to the surface for them to reach. Small fish may be concentrating there or being pushed upwards by larger predators underneath.
That does not mean you should immediately grab the fishing rod and prepare dinner.
You can, obviously.
Whether the fish cooperate is another question entirely.
We spent plenty of time trying to catch fish from our boats and became extremely experienced at catching absolutely nothing.
But a group of birds actively feeding is still interesting. It is a reminder that the apparently empty blue water around your boat may be very busy underneath.
Our Own Seagull Fishing Incident
We learned about the relationship between birds and fishing gear in a slightly less elegant way.
While we were living at anchor in Akyarlar, we were trying to fish from Milda. There was bread on the hook when a seagull spotted it.
I saw the bird coming down towards the water and had one of those very useful thoughts that arrives just slightly too late:
Should I pull the line in?
Yes.
Unfortunately, the seagull was faster.
It went for the bread and caught the hook in its beak.
Definitely not the catch we had been hoping for.
Since then, I have been much more aware of birds when there is bait or fishing gear around the boat. What looks like an obvious metal hook to us can simply look like lunch from above.
Fishing Boats Are a Different Story
Around commercial fishing vessels, the relationship becomes much stronger.
Birds can learn that boats mean food and may gather around them waiting for an opportunity.
Unfortunately, getting close to fishing activity also has risks. Birds can become caught on hooks, tangled in lines or otherwise injured by fishing gear.
For sailors, the practical lesson is much smaller but still useful: if you are fishing from your own boat and birds are circling nearby, keep an eye on your bait and lines.
Wildlife encounters at sea can be wonderful, but they are also a reminder that we are moving through someone else's habitat.
Sometimes those encounters become considerably more complicated than one optimistic seagull. Our article about orcas and sailboats in the Strait of Gibraltar looks at a very different example of boats and marine wildlife meeting in the same space.
The Birds Change as You Sail Farther Offshore
This is one of the things I love about being at sea.
Close to shore, gulls are familiar. Depending on where you sail, you may also see terns, cormorants and other coastal birds.
Farther offshore, the cast can change. Shearwaters, petrels, gannets and, in some parts of the world, albatrosses become more likely companions.
After enough time on the water, you start noticing these patterns without really trying.
We don't normally see that bird this close to shore.
There are a lot of birds feeding over there.
Something is happening in that patch of water.
Of course, birds do not follow our neat definitions of “coastal” and “offshore.” Season, migration, weather and food availability all change where they appear.
But noticing them becomes another small part of learning to look at the sea.
Can Seabirds Tell You Where the Fish Are?
Sometimes.
But I would not switch off the electronics and appoint a gull as navigator just yet.
The useful clue is not simply seeing a bird.
It is seeing what the bird is doing.
A bird travelling steadily across the water may simply be going somewhere.
Several birds circling and repeatedly diving into the same area are much more interesting.
And if you can also see fish breaking the surface or dolphins feeding nearby, then something is very clearly happening below.
Whether anything down there wants your hook remains between you and the fish.
Good luck with that.
Should You Feed Seabirds From the Boat?
I wouldn't.
One friendly-looking gull can become a surprisingly large committee of gulls once food is involved.
They also do not need to learn that boats automatically mean snacks.
Enjoy them without turning your cockpit into a seabird restaurant.
Marinas provide enough evidence of what happens when gulls become extremely comfortable around humans.
One More Reason to Look Around
Sailing makes you notice small things.
A different colour in the water.
Clouds changing shape.
A strange patch of ripples.
Dolphins in the distance.
Birds gathering over one particular spot.
None of these things is a magical message from the sea. Sometimes a bird is simply a bird flying past your boat.
And that is fine too.
Because one of the nicest things about sailing is realising how much is happening around you once you actually start looking.
And if a seabird decides to fly alongside us for ten minutes?
I am still going to pretend it came to say hello.
Even if it was probably checking whether we had any bread.
Love noticing the small things that happen around a boat?
Practical sailing advice, real boat life and sea stories — straight from Sailoscope.
