Seagull Funeral

[gbfish]

the other day i was driving along and i noticed hundreds of seagulls circling above the road, when i asked my girlfriend why they were there she said there must be a dead brid around somewhere. i didnt believe her but sure enough there was a dead seagull in the road. my girlfriend said that she had seen this happen before when there was a dead bird behind her house. is this a common thing for seagulls to do, if so why do they do it? or i it just a coincidence that there ws a dead bird nearby?

[blue eyes ;)]

hi,i think seagulls are like crows and actually eat dead birds.im not too sure but i think thats why they circle as they eventually attack the corpse.anyone else know for sure? x

[File Cutter]

I once saw a fledgling jackdaw in the road with the rest of the flock circling - I moved the fledgling to a safe place and the flock continued to circle over it - I think to encourage it to fly/give it protection.

Perhaps this is what you saw only the seagull had just been killed and the flock hadn't moved on yet.

[kita1]

Seagull's do eat dead animals and yes they were probably waiting to try and get to the dead bird, the traffic was most likely putting them off.

I saw three eating a dead pigeon last night actually in town.

Looks awful but at least they clean the place up and stop the poor birds dead body from rotting in the street, and it helps them survive and feed their chicks.

[wildwood]

Seagulls will eat not only dead animals, but also live ones, anything they can overpower.
The circling above one of their dead kindred I suspect to be an alarm gathering more than anything. They will be very weary to land until they are sure that there is no immediate danger present that may have killed the dead gull. In a situation where a dead animal is lying out in the open, it is not unusual for a fox to wait in the nearby bush for others to come and inspect a dead animal, then rush the gathering, so getting 2 or 3 tasty animals.