British Seabirds: Where and When to See Them

Britain and Ireland hold millions of breeding seabirds, including most of the world's Manx Shearwaters and over half its Gannets. Here is what to see, where and when.

Updated 6 October 2026

The seabird year

The main groups and how to tell them apart

Gannet

Gannet is our largest seabird: white with black wing tips and a yellow head, and it dives from height with wings folded back. Britain holds over half the world population. Bird flu hit colonies hard in 2022: Bass Rock fell by about a quarter and Grassholm by nearly 40%, and a 2026 study suggests full recovery could take until around 2041. Bass Rock in East Lothian is still the world's largest colony. On the English mainland, Gannets breed only at Bempton Cliffs.

Auks

• Puffin: small, with a bright bill and orange feet. Nests in burrows on grassy slopes. Ashore from late March or April to late July.
• Guillemot: chocolate brown above, with a slim pointed bill. Packs onto open ledges.
• Razorbill: black above, with a deep blunt bill crossed by a white line. Fewer, and tucked into crevices.
• Black Guillemot: all black with a white wing patch and red feet. Rocky shores in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Anglesey.
• Little Auk: Starling-sized. A late autumn visitor in the North Sea, not a breeder.

Fulmar, shearwaters and petrels

Fulmar looks like a gull but glides on stiff, straight wings. Manx Shearwater is black above and white below and tilts from one to the other as it shears low over the waves. Most of the world's Manx breed on Skomer and Skokholm in Pembrokeshire and on Rum, and come to their burrows only at night. Storm Petrel is sparrow-sized and dark with a white rump. It breeds on remote islands such as Mousa in Shetland. Leach's Petrel is much rarer.

Gulls and Kittiwake

Kittiwake is the true sea-going gull: neat, with wing tips that look dipped in black ink, black legs and a call that says its name. It is Red-listed. Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull nest on the cliff tops.

Terns

Slim, with forked tails, and they hover before diving. Sandwich Tern is the largest, with a black bill tipped yellow. Common Tern and Arctic Tern are close: Arctic has a shorter, all-red bill and longer tail streamers (see Common Tern vs Arctic Tern). Little Tern is tiny, with a yellow bill, on shingle beaches. Roseate Tern is the rarest breeder.

Skuas

Dark, powerful birds that chase other seabirds for their food. Great Skua is bulky with white wing flashes. Arctic Skua is slim and falcon-like. Both breed in Shetland and Orkney. Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas are passage birds.

Cormorant and Shag

Cormorant is larger, with a white face patch, and occurs inland. Shag is slimmer, all dark green-black, and stays on rocky coasts.

Best places to see seabirds in the UK

• RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire: around half a million seabirds between March and August. Gannets, Puffins and auks from clifftop platforms. No boat needed.
• RSPB South Stack, Anglesey: Guillemots, Razorbills, a few Puffins, plus Chough.
• Skomer, Pembrokeshire: Puffins at your feet and Manx Shearwaters at night if you stay over. See the Wales guide.
• Farne Islands, Northumberland: boat trips from Seahouses. Puffins, Arctic Terns and auks at close range.
• Isle of May and Bass Rock, Firth of Forth: boats from Anstruther and North Berwick.
• Handa, Sutherland, and Shetland's cliffs: skuas as well as auks. See the Scotland guide.

Pelagic trips (July to September)

Some seabirds rarely come close to land. Boat trips from Scilly and Cornwall look for them in late summer.

• Cory's and Great Shearwater: large shearwaters from the Atlantic islands and the South Atlantic. Best from the Isles of Scilly.
• Sooty Shearwater: all dark, from the southern hemisphere. Passes most coasts in autumn.
• Balearic Shearwater: a scarce, critically endangered visitor to the Channel coast.
• Wilson's Storm Petrel: a pelagic speciality off the south-west.
• Sabine's Gull: a scarce autumn migrant off western headlands.

Seawatching from land

Pick a headland, wait for an onshore wind and start at dawn. Sit low and out of the wind. A spotting scope on a steady tripod matters more here than anywhere else in birding, and binoculars find the birds for it.

• Pendeen and Porthgwarra, Cornwall: north-westerlies for Pendeen, south-westerlies for Porthgwarra.
• Berry Head, Devon: the south coast option.
• Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire: best in north-westerlies.
• Flamborough Head and Spurn, Yorkshire: North Sea passage in northerly and easterly winds. See the Yorkshire guide.

How weather moves seabirds is covered in our migration guide.