Seagull behaviour, any experts?

[Holenewme]

I live in a coastal town with a lot of seagulls. It’s that time of year when all the babies are leaving the rooftops and being killed by cats/ cars/ kids etc and complete chaos.

I always watch the rooftops of houses opposite as they always have a nest. I like to see how many they have, watch them grow and have been waiting to see if they leave this week. Two of them left over the last couple of days, leaving one on the roof. The mum and dad seagull were feeding the ones on the ground and the one on the roof still.

Then a couple of hours ago a seagull started attacking the baby on the roof. Grabbing it by the neck with it’s beak and dragging it to the edge of the roof. Then a black backed hull started swooping down and about ten other seagulls started swooping at the one attacking the baby. It looked like the black back was trying to get the baby and all the others were trying to stop it. Then another seagull started attacking the baby and they completely ripped it apart and pushed the bits of it off the roof . After that they all flew off, didn’t try to eat the baby or anything.

I don’t know if the seagulls attacking the baby were it’s parents or just some other ones but why did they do it? They didn’t eat it and if it was encroaching on another seagulls territory surely they’d have got rid of the eggs or done it when they were tiny.

Any ideas? I’ve never seen them hurt the young before. They always seem to work together normally. If a cat or buzzard is around they start calling and all nearby adults swoop at it until it’s gone. It seemed really weird behaviour and I’d love to know why they did it.

Sorry, should have specified - every time I said seagull I meant herring gull. I realised halfway through but forgot to change it.

They’re crazy at the moment. We’ve got ones (with 3 big balls of fluff baby seagull) on the roof of next door and we can’t use our back garden as they keep dive bombing us and our kids. The noise too! Bloody 4am this morning. 😡

They’re certainly noisy buggers doodle. Your seagull family is doing well if they’ve still got all 3 babies. I don’t think seagulls ever sleep, they certainly make as much noise at night as they do in the day. Only a few more days and then they’ll be gone though.

What a shame. And not a nice thing to witness. I'm no expert but the only thing I can think might have triggered it was a territorial instinct. Then once the other smelt blood it triggered a kind of frenzy. Sort of like when chickens take against one in their flock and peck them to death.
Birds are odd. Having said that I was really upset when one of my cats brought in a dead adult jay the other day. Such s beautiful intelligent bird. Bastard cat.

Not seagulls but I saw something similar happen to a duckling years ago. Quite horrific, it's stayed with me ever since and I often wonder about it. I wonder if maybe the baby is poorly and the adults kill it because it wouldn't survive? But I'm really not sure why. Seems so awful and pointless otherwise.

Oh jays are beautiful. There are quite a few baby seagulls on the ground at the moment who are being terrorised by local cats (mine included). The parents are so busy swooping down on them.

I was wondering if it was the parents themselves doing it. Maybe to try and encourage the baby off the roof as the couldn’t feed it up there while at the same time feed the fledglings. But then got a bit carried away? I don’t know what the black back was doing either, normally they all swoop at them as soon as a black back is spotted.

Seagull are scavangers. They happily kill almost anything smaller than themselves, even their own. I hate seagulls. Horrible creatures.

But they don’t normally kill their own. They are normally very good parents, both parents incubate the eggs and look after the young. Feeding them for up to two years sometimes.

I never understand when people say they hate animals for normal animal behaviour. I do understand it's hard to see and unpleasant but it's instinct. And nowhere near as bad as what humans do to one another with the supposed benefit of "intelligence"

Seagull babies are incredibly lazy and would stay in their nests until adulthood if they could, so the parents often force them out of the nest buy pushing them off roofs, which is why you see so many young grounded. They are also hugely territorial so if a baby goes anywhere near another nest then it's not unusual for them to be ripped to shreds by other adults. Maybe it wasn't the parents you saw attacking the baby, could have been other parents!

Yeah I'm not doubting seagulls are good parents but other seagulls wouldn't think twice about killing baby seagulls.

I imagine it was a territorial thing but I'm not sure. We have had 2 baby seagulls in the garden of the house across from us for the last week. We have to walk past it to get anywhere. Been dive bombed a few times and my cats currently refuse to go out of the front because of it. I will be happy when it can fly and goes somewhere else. Rather annoying but that's life I suppose.

I just posted about gull noise myself as it is pure misery for me in my new flat in Southampton City Centre, and 24/7. I've heard they stay around all year but if anyone knows if they calm down or migrate and generally SHUT UP later in the year, please give me some hope!!

I found this post interesting as I am yet to see a nest, although must be surrounded by thousands. They definitely own my town, we are merely visitors to their domain!

(No, I don't blame the seagulls, and yes I am already on to all soundprooofing and earplug tricks)

It's because they are arseholes.

Seagulls don’t behave like people. Animals are driven by the urge to perpetuate their own genes. They will protect the young of their own species against attacks from other species, but they will give their own offspring whatever advantage they can over other gull offspring.

Oh, hang on, just like people then...

I love seagulls.

A few years ago I was very ill in hospital. I told everyone to keep away as I didn’t want my family seeing me look so dreadful.

But I had visitors who came to my window, seagulls of all kinds.

I swear their funny antics and inquisitive faces helped me pull through.

I’d get one that would just look at me for ages, he/she was beautiful.

When I was well enough to open the window they would return to the ledge and I would feed them. If caught the nurses would go mad but in my delirium the seagulls were my chums!

Pigeons = feathered rats

Seagulls = web-footed vultures

What’s not to love about that face? ❤️

Bloody hell I live on the coast and have never seen anything like that. My gulls have been nesting here for at least 10 years and are very good parents. They only have one this year. They never attack me or the cat either.

I'm really attached to the seagull in my garden
He follows me up and down the path when im hanging washing with my pegs, tapping his little feet. When we have dinner in the garden he stand behind this tiny little plant thinking I cant see him and he peeps round to see what we're eating

Gulls are not just scavengers. They kill and eat fish and smaller birds and wont think twice about cannibalising their own eggs and young, they regularly . They may have left for now but will likely come back and eat the remains later when the coast is clear. Lots of birds eat their own species.

Or was the young gull moving about on the roof, maybe approached another nest and was seen as a threat and it started an attack frenzy?

www.seagullsarenotevil.info/issues/killing-other-chicks/

I love seagulls too Soola

yep, the adults chase the fledglings off the nest/roof.

but they also attack and kill chicks that are not well.

brokenwing there’s only one nest on the roofs that the chick was on so don’t think he wandered over to someone else’s roof.

They didn’t come back to eat it, my neighbour was scraping it up off the path with a shovel. The two that were on the ground have now gone back to the roof and are still being fed up there.

I love watching them learn to fly, they scream their heads off the whole time.

bargate they’re certainly in my town all year. They’re much more noticeable in the summer due to the babies and grockles feeding them but they do stick around. I think you just get used to them eventually. I actually missed them a bit this year. I can normally see 11 nests from my bedroom window but only 3 this year. I don’t know if numbers have dropped or people have put up netting but definitely quieter than usual.