Pelagic Birding, Goa

The word ‘pelagic’ comes from the greek word ‘pelagikos’ meaning ‘of the sea’.

Pelagic birds are a unique group of birds that spend their entire lives over the ocean only briefly returning to land to breed. Most of them have special adaptations that enable them to survive that include longer wing spans, increased amounts of body fat and special glands that remove salt from sea water. Some of them even have the ability to sleep while flying!

A bhraminy Kite is dwarfed by a huge buoy as we exited Vasco harbour

The relatively shallow water that extends from the coastline is known as the continental shelf. The edge of the shelf after which it abruptly drops away into the depths is considered the most biodiverse area of the ocean and it’s here that one would find a high concentration of marine life. On the west coast of India the distance of the continental shelf varies considerably from 60Km off Kochi to 120Km off Goa to 345Km of Daman.

Typical Indian fishing trawler

For pelagic birding trips in India to be cost effective the boats used are fishing trawlers that travel at around 7-10 knots (roughly 12-19Km/h) and reaching the edge of the shelf on a day trip is difficult if not impossible.

In October 2025 I enrolled for one of these trips in Goa and right from the outset let me warn you, if you are not a hard core birder then this is definitely not for you!

To begin with you will spend the entire day out at sea and on a still day the heat can be killing. Even if you fortunate to have a considerate captain who has thoughtfully provided a makeshift sunshade.

Around 12 of us (crew included) assembled at Vasco Jetty at 6am and were ferried to the ‘mother ship’ via a smaller boat. We then spent the next 13 hours chugging due west and back with the occasional deviation to track a bird on the water.

Unlike land birding where on a good day it is not unusual to chalk up 50-100 species, on these trips if you cross 10 pelagic bird species you have done exceptionally well.

Fortunately the sea was kind with gentle swells and sea sickness was not an issue. I had heard horror stories of choppy waters augmented with pictorial evidence of entire groups strewn across the deck emptying their guts out, pelagic birds being furthest from their minds.

100% cropped image of a couple of masked boobys

The majority of birds zip past, more often than not, quite a distance away. It’s only on viewing a heavily magnifies image on the camera screen that one is able to appreciate the details.

Apart for the ones flying, we did see quite a few birds on the water as well.

Common tern perched on a block of floating thermacol

From a photography point of view shooting a bird on the water is tricky. The first hurdle is getting the bird in the frame while trying to stabilise yourself on a rocking boat. Once in the frame, let me tell you, keeping it there is a different story altogether and the fact that the bird is also bobbing up and down certainly does not help! I must say the focus tracking of the EOS R5 Mk2 did exceptionally well and I did manage to get reasonably decent images.

Greater crested terns on a strip of floating garbage

If you are looking to get tack sharp full frame images you are in for a disappointment! Most images are shot from a distance and need to be heavily cropped. Shooting flying birds, often against the sun further compounds the problem.

If ever there was one single positive use for floating garbage it’s the fact that they make convenient perches for pelagic birds.

That being said, when the dominant feature in your many of your best images includes a floating piece of garbage it is, in my opinion, not at all fair!

Bridled tern shortly after it flew off its perch on a piece of floating garbage

Fortunately that is not always the case and one can wait for the bird to fly off and hope and pray that it flies in a direction that is anything but directly away. The bridled tern above is a case in point.

And then there are the rare instances where the Gods smile and present a bird on a more natural and far less disgusting perch like the lesser crested tern below on a log of driftwood.

Lesser crested tern on a piece of driftwood

Out at sea there are long periods of inactivity. Our guide was Omkar Dharwadkar and I have done a birding trip with him before. When it comes to birding guides, this guy is right there at the top amongst the very best. Not only is he an exceptional guide he is also extremely nice as a person. For most of the trip he stood out at the bow scouring the horizon for birds. He’d normally sight them far in the distance and caution us to be ready.

Rosy starling… miles off shore!

There was this one occasion when we miles off shore. One of the birders shouted “bird on the right!” and we swivelled to our right gazing out to sea. “No, no” he whispered, ” not out at sea! It’s on the boat!” It turned out to be one of two rosy starlings that was perched on the sunshade support.

For some strange reason the starlings were very comfortable with our presence and would forage for titbits often within a few feet of us.

The big question was how did they get here? Did they board the boat on shore? We did notice that the starlings stayed for a while and then flew off to a nearby boat that was heading in the direction of the shore. So it is possible that some birds board on shore and then will fly from boat to boat in the middle of the ocean.

Black drongo perched on the mast

There was this time when we were focused on a Wilson’s storm petrel on the water. As we approached it took off and settled down a hundred yards away. This happened a couple of times when suddenly Omkar shouted, “dark bird flying towards the boat!!”

Thinking it was another Wilson’s storm petrel we swivelled our cameras in the direction he was pointing excited at the prospect of getting a nicer image. It turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax. The incoming bird was a black drongo that flew from another boat and perched on the mast.

If the starlings were ‘comfortable’ in our presence then the grey-necked bunting below was nothing short of fearless. It roamed the deck often hopping under our very feet in search of scraps of food.

Grey-necked buntings breed in Central Asia and migrate to Southern Asia for the winter. It is a know fact that migratory birds often take a breather on passing ships in their migratory path before resuming their journey and it is very possible that this particular bird was in the process of doing just that.

Grey-necked bunting… up close and personal!

For me, the highlight of the trip was a sighting of a Wilson storm Petrel ‘pattering’ on the water surface. As a first time viewer it was one of the stranger sights that I have seen.

As usual, Omkar spotted the bird well before I did. As we neared it the bird appeared to be half flying half walking on the surface of the water in a rather oblique manner following a very crooked path. The closest analogy I can think of is that of a sped up video of a very drunken person tottering back home from a bar!

The bird uses this unusual technique to disturb the surface of the water in search of planktonic food.

Wilson’s storm petrel ‘pattering’ on the surface of the water

Looking back at my very first pelagic trip I have mixed feelings. For one the number of species and sightings are far less than a land excursion. Also the images of the pelagic species are not even close to perfect (apart from the birds that we found on the boat). Add to that the heat and a relentlessly rocking boat and it is definitely not everybody’s cup of tea.

That being said, it was a novel experience with a great guide and good company and I certainly look forward to doing other such trips maybe off different parts of India’s vast coastline.

If you are interested, this is a link to a short video clip I posted on YouTube on the Wilson’s storm petrel ‘pattering’:

https://youtu.be/G_FnP2XXnjs