Last updated: February 22, 2023 at 10:53 am
Anyone who lives anywhere remotely close to the coast will be painfully aware of how loud seagulls can be. They are incredibly loud birds, and their squawks can be heard day or night. It can be frustrating, especially in the early hours of the morning.
But:
Why are seagulls so noisy? What separates them from other, more peaceful birds?
IN THIS ARTICLE
5 Reasons Why Seagulls Are So Noisy
1. Breeding Season
The months of April to September are the seagull’s breeding season. Within these months, the birds tend to get louder. They get louder during this time of year because their chicks are getting ready to leave the nest and the adult gulls are mating. The calls are made between partners, parents, and chicks, and can be continuous.
Seagulls are habitual birds and usually return to the same nesting site each year. So between the months of April and September, if you’ve got noisy gulls nearby, you likely will have every year.
The birds tend to build their nests on high buildings, as many of their nesting locations have been destroyed.
2. The COVID-19 Lockdown
If you’re noticing more seagull noises now than you have done in the past, it may well be because of the COVID-19 lockdown. During the lockdowns there were fewer people in urban areas. As a result, more seagulls built nests.
There was less of a threat, and so the number of seagulls in the urban areas of the country increased dramatically. The birds are very communicative, and so will often flock to similar spaces.
You have more seagulls, by consequence, you’ll have more seagull noise. The birds, as mentioned, communicate with one another. They talk to one another about several things, and so a concentrated population of them will lead to a fair amount of squawking.
Related: Pet Noise Category
3. Feeling Threatened
Seagulls have lost a lot of their natural territory. They are very protective and territorial birds and will make as much noise as possible on a regular basis to protect themselves, their nests and their offspring.
By screaming and squawking, they can ward off predators and keep their nests danger-free.
4. Communicating
species will talk to one another to communicate dominance, submission, and danger. Seagulls are no exception to this. They are incredibly communicative creatures and will talk to one another about plenty of things.
This is often the cause of their squawking. Seagulls are likely to communicate with one another about everything from a food sources, a predator, and breeding, to protect their young and themselves. Whilst they are very communicative birds, they’re not particularly social. Seagulls, as a rule, hate having other seagulls on their territory.
Most of their communication among the species will be about this. Seagulls are desperate to protect their territory and will squawk and scream to do so.
5. The Sunrise
Like most animals, seagulls are governed by the sunrise and sunset. As a result, they are often noisiest in the morning when they first wake up.
The birds will often communicate with one another at first light, which can be incredibly frustrating to residents of nearby nesting areas – especially in the summer when first light is super early in the morning!
What Can Be Done?
There is not a whole lot that can be done against herring gulls. The law states that it is illegal for anyone to capture, injure or destroy any species of wild bird, its nest, or its eggs. This includes seagulls, no matter how noisy they can be. The only time that seagulls can be interfered with is when they are causing a danger to public health and safety.
Even then, only the owners or occupiers of a building can act toward seagulls nesting on their property. It must be done using humane methods and cannot involve poisoning, drugging, or harming the bird in any way.
There are, however, ways to control seagulls. If you’re living somewhere with too much noise from seagulls, you can always try…
Seagull Proofing
If you’ve noticed seagulls resting on your house all the time, you can add spikes, nets, or wires to your property.
These can stop birds from nesting and sitting on your house, protecting it from their feces and keeping your home safe from the noise pollution that seagulls are known to cause.
Keep Your Garden Free From Rubbish
Seagulls get a large chunk of their food from binbags, and rubbish left on the street. If you can avoid it, keep your rubbish, and bin bags out of your front garden and garden. Use your wheelie bins or community bins to ensure that you’re not enticing any seagulls to your home.
Once a seagull knows that there is a reliable source of food somewhere, they will return there on a regular basis – something you want to avoid if noisy seagulls are causing you an issue!
Don’t Feed the Gulls!
Seagulls will remember where they’ve been fed. If you feed a seagull in your garden or out your window, be aware that the seagull is incredibly likely to return. If you continue to feed it, it may even nest nearby. That’s a surefire way to bring seagull noisiness to your front door.
It’s always best to avoid feeding seagulls unless you want them to come back. It can be a great way to help them out if you do want them nearby, but if you’re looking to reduce the noise of nearby seagulls, it should be avoided.
