Cunning seagulls are plaguing Britain’s seaside resorts with brazen attacks on innocent tourists eating chips, pasties and ice creams, can reveal today.
From Brighton to Cornwall and Kent to South Wales, our team trekked around the UK to see a catalogue of chaos as gangs of shrieking gulls prowl the skies, hunting for their next unsuspecting victims.
As one of ‘s reporters wandered through the quaint Pembrokeshire town of Tenby, they saw a vicious attack by a seagull on a mother-of-four.
Jane Anderson, 47, was licking her £3 vanilla and honeycomb ice cream when a gull swooped down from behind and seized the tasty treat with its beak.
Your chips will be gone in three seconds in Margate, while ‘XL Gullies’ have taken over Liverpool and some sunseekers in Cornwall are scared to go outdoors.
Yet while terrified cafe owners have decried the ‘epidemic’ of seagulls dive-bombing from the sky to snatch tourists’ food from the moment they step outside, experts told there was no way to banish the pests from the seaside.
The sly birds – technically called gulls rather than seagulls – remain protected because their colonies are declining so rapidly, meaning they are on a ‘red list’ of birds at risk.
And anyone who deliberately disturbs or harms wild gulls risks up to two years in prison and a fine.
Bird expert Dominic Couzens told the seagulls were more intelligent than people gave them credit for and they were taking advantage of Brits’ forgiving nature.
Mr Couzens explained that the fierce gulls had learned to target holidaymakers holding chips and ice creams – and suggested Brits only have themselves to blame.
He said: ‘They are not the problem. We are the problem. The reason herring gulls started eating chips is that people would leave them and not put them in bins.
‘People’s reaction to the gulls is a really clear example of how people are devoid of nature. The gulls are the ones that live there – it’s their environment. A gull is like a massive blue tit with attitude.
‘Some of them are moving into cities – usually herring and lesser black-backed gulls.
‘If they come into town they are going to be more familiar with people. They are omnivores, very intelligent and will eat anything.
‘They are opportunistic and extremely adaptable. If they are into a good thing, they will stick with it.
‘They are being lazy – just taking opportunities when they present themselves. From their point of view it’s just doing what they do – what comes naturally to them.’
He added that dive-bombing gulls were especially prolific in summer, when they have their babies and so are more protective and territorial.
The bird expert said: ‘They nest on roofs for a short period in summer, treating it as their territory.
‘People have been dive-bombed when they come home but the gulls are only trying to protect their young.’
With their cushy lifestyle of endless junk food and government protection, the smug seagulls have formed a feral posse of gulls that control Britain’s skies – and poor holidaymakers step outside at their peril.
To test the problem, one reporter walked through a lock of gulls in Margate with a freshly cooked portion of chips smothered with salt and vinegar.
Bird expert Dominic Couzens told the smarmy seagulls were more intelligent than people gave them credit for and they were taking advantage of Brits’ forgiving nature.
Couzens said the fierce gulls had learned to target holidaymakers holding chips and ice creams – and suggested Brits only have themselves to blame.
The expert said: ‘They are not the problem. We are the problem. The reason herring gulls started eating chips is that people would leave them and not put them in bins.
‘If they come into town they are going to be more familiar with people. They are omnivores, very intelligent and will eat anything.
‘They are opportunistic and extremely adaptable. If they are into a good thing, they will stick with it.
‘They are being lazy – just taking opportunities when they present themselves. From their point of view it’s just doing what they do – what comes naturally to them.’
Within three seconds the box was knocked out of his hand and the chips disappeared into beaks.
Mother-of-four Jane Anderson, who also survived a seagull attack that was witnessed by this week, said a vicious gull ‘came from nowhere’, ‘swooped down and my ice cream was gone’.
Over in Tenby, Delmon Fecci, who has owned a fish and chip shop for 50 years, said the seagulls in the town were ‘as big as turkeys and not frightened of people’.
‘They work in teams to get at your food,’ he said. ‘They’ve become very good at it.’
Mr Fecci, 68, said the problem almost disappeared during Covid, when the streets were empty of tourists eating their food on the go. But now they are ‘back with a vengeance’.
Across the road at the Florentino’s Italian restaurant, manager Roberto Cocos, 34, said the gulls ‘are our worst enemies’.
He said: ‘They work as a team – yesterday I saw a man running down the road being chased by two seagulls after his ice cream.’
Schoolboy Llion O’Leary, 10, was even left with blood oozing from his hand when a gull swooped down for his sandwich at a Tenby adventure park.
The youngster from Merthyr Tydfil said: ‘It was ham, my favourite. I was about to take a bite but the seagull got it first and flew off with it.’
Tenby is not the only seaside resort facing such shocking seagull attacks by a long way.
A little over 100 miles away in Looe, Cornwall, locals said they couldn’t believe the protection the greedy gulls got – even after dive-bombing tourists.
‘We have so many here because of people eating food in the street. We need to find a way to allow business owners to protect their customers.’
The RSPCA said: ‘Gulls that swoop suddenly on people or pets are usually trying to protect
‘They’ll stop when the person or animal has moved away from their young. This behaviour usually only lasts for a few weeks until the chicks have fledged and are able to protect themselves.
‘The best thing to do is keep your distance from any gull nests, or chicks that you see on the ground. If you can’t avoid walking close to them, then holding an open umbrella above your head will help deter the parents from swooping.’
Bird expert Dominic Couzens told gulls are most likely to dive-bomb people during summer after they have given birth.
He said: ‘They nest on roofs for a short period in summer, treating it as their territory.
‘People have been dive-bombed when they come home but the gulls are only trying to protect their young.’
The RSPCA says the best way to stop gulls nesting on your roof is ‘by making preparations in the winter to limit the opportunity for them to settle there during the breeding season’.
Once they have nested, it is ‘an offence to restrict access to a nest that is being used unless you’re acting under licence’.
Ali has lived in Looe all her life and said she felt bad for other towns across the country suffering from the scourge of ‘awful, horrible creatures’.
Looe has seen a boost in tourism in recent years, partly due to its use as the setting for fictional village Shipton Abbott in BBC Death In Paradise spin-off Beyond Paradise.
But now locals fear tourists will be driven away by the menacing birds and say their efforts to quell the attacks have been foiled by bureaucracy intended to protect the gulls.
At the popular Pier Cafe, just a few yards from the Looe waterfront, staff said they were stuck in an impossible situation with so many customers losing food the moment they step outside.
Tallan McGuinness, 20, who works there over the summer, said: ‘It’s a massive issue for us. We asked the council for permission to get a big cover put up but they wouldn’t allow it.
‘We put brollies up on the tables but they steal food all the time. We have had to put signs up saying we can’t give refunds if that happens.
‘We had it the other day that a man got really angry about it but if we refunded every time it happened we’d be out of business.
‘It’s awful, you see people walk out and their ice cream is just gone. When the beach is full there are so many of them, they are everywhere.’
Tom McAsey, 56, in nearby Port Isaac, said the town had also seen the ‘seagull epidemic’ and birds were ‘renowned for stealing pasties and ice creams’.
In Brighton, herring gulls in the seaside resort are known to be especially vicious.
With lightning speed they swoop on the terrified tourist and either grab the food or cause their victim to drop it.
Other gulls then drag the bag of chips, burger, sandwich or ice-cream away before feasting on it in a pandemonium of wings and feathers.
Within seconds they have polished it off and the gulls have taken to the wing again in search of their next victim.
It has become so bad in places that seafront food stall owners warn customers to take cover once they had made their purchase.
Technically, there is indeed no such thing as a seagull. The birds we know as seagulls are actually a variety of gull species – and not all live by the sea.
The gulls you see at the beach are most likely to be herring gulls, lesser black-backed gulls and great black-backed gulls.
Herring gulls are large with pale grey wings, pink legs and a white head in summer that has dark streaks in winter.
Lesser black-backed gulls are slightly smaller with darker grey wings and black wingtips as well as yellow legs.
Great black-backed gulls are the largest of all the gulls with a big beak, black wings and pale pink legs.
Although they’re usually found around the coast, many gulls also live inland for at least part of the year. They often roost in flocks. You might see them in grassy areas like public parks, sports fields, farmland as well as landfill sites where they look for food.
There are three species of gulls in particular that have adapted well to nesting in urban areas, and will often build their nests on roofs – herring gulls, great black-backed gulls and lesser black-backed gulls. Urban areas are often preferred by gulls because there are fewer predators and a constant supply of food.
Like all wild birds, gulls, their chicks and their nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This means it’s illegal to intentionally kill, take or injure gulls, take or destroy their eggs, or damage or destroy any gull nests while they’re in use or being built – unless you’re acting under licence.
Although gulls are a common sight in many areas near the coast, some species of gull, such as herring gulls and kittiwakes, are actually on the UK Red List. They’re considered species of conservation concern in the UK because there’s evidence suggesting that their populations are in decline overall.
Source: RSPCA
Jack Messenger, who runs the Sea Haze seafood hut on Brighton beach with his father, said: ‘We’ve got signs up everywhere warning people to cover their food and sit down to eat it as seagulls are always on the prowl.
‘They circle in ones and twos and when they’re ready to strike they will hover above their victim and then descend on the food in their hands – it can be quite terrifying.
‘I see loads of attacks each day and we often get people coming back for repeat orders having lost their food to a seagull. I hate them myself but I suppose they’re part of the seaside experience.’
Danielle Richardson, 22, who helps run a Doughnut, Churro and Crepe hut at the entrance to Brighton Palace Pier, said: ‘It’s crazy. They’re very intelligent and scope out who is eating what before choosing someone to target and really going for it.
‘You hear people shrieking and that attracts more seagulls to join the attack. I’ve seen people quite traumatised by it.’
Annalie Graham, who was giving two French children a tour of Brighton, was attacked by a ferocious group of seagulls who seized two sandwiches and continued to attack the children as they fled up the beach.
She said: ‘They were really going for it. They got one sandwich by prising the hands of one of the children and snatching it. They were pretty aggressive and very persistent. They knew we had food and they wanted it.’
Ramzi Zarifa, 19, who works at the fish and chip hut near the pier, said: ‘Oh I see between six and 10 attacks each day.
‘The seagulls fly in low and then hover above their victim – I don’t know how they don’t see the threat. Then they strike. Heading straight for the hand holding the food and they will peck and snatch until they’ve got it.
‘It’s a right hotspot area at the entrance to the pier when it is sunny and busy. The seagulls know when it is lunchtime and they’ll all gather round.’
Some locals have branded the seagulls ‘airborne vermin’ and ‘flying rats’ and have urged the council to consider a cull to keep down numbers.
But the birds are so intertwined with the city image that its Premier League football team Brighton & Hove Albion are known as ‘The Seagulls’.
Mohamidi El Fakala, who also works in a fast food outlet near the beach, said: ‘I saw a really bad attack in the Pavilion gardens recently with some guy eating a pizza.
‘They descended on him and even though he managed to close the pizza box they still continued to attack him. They then resorted to pooing on him and he eventually chucked the box and ran off. It was really bad.’
Resident Edie Phelps, 34, said: ‘I love wildlife and I’m happy to live and let live but these seagulls are crazy.
‘I saw around six seagulls attack a baby in a pram for the biscuit it was eating. The poor baby was absolutely terrified and was left with scratch marks on her face and bird poo all over her. It was really shocking.
‘They obviously go for the easy targets but no one is immune. I saw some big guy get robbed of a fresh bag of chips. One gull pecked him on the neck from behind while the others attacked from the front. It was insane.’
In Margate, the vicious birds have even been seen pulling people’s hair in their quest for food.
On the seafront near the iconic Turner Centre, a flock of seagulls sit biding their time waiting for visitors to leave fish and chip shops including popular Peter’s Fish Factory.
Workers there said they have seen the birds take fish, chips and even the odd battered sausage.
To test the problem, our reporter walked through a gaggle of gulls with an ice cream and a freshly cooked portion of chips.
It turns out, the Margate gulls have no interest in ice cream – at least not an iconic 99 – vanilla ice cream with a flake.
Chips, on the other hand, are far more popular for avian pallets.
Our reporter opened her chips, which were smothered with salt and vinegar and fresh out the fryer, and walked through the flock of birds.
Within three seconds the box was knocked out of her hand and the chips disappeared into beaks so quickly the photographer was unable to capture it on film, so we asked her to do it again.
Clutching the second box of chips tighter, she walked towards the gaggle, while birds dive bombed and flapped their wings around her head.
Even with the box clutched tightly in her hand, it took mere moments for every last fry to disappear from the box.
Keaton Cooper, 21, who has worked at Peter’s Fish Factory for five and a half years said: ‘If the box is seen by the seagulls, they know what they are looking for and they will come down and they will take your food, yes.
‘If people leave their boxes alone for too long the seagulls automatically come down and will take it, and then we replace it.
‘There aren’t many problems with them, they’re greedy, they love fish and chips, and it’s the seaside.
He added: ‘I’ve seen a few people get their hair pulled. The seagulls aren’t there to hurt you, they just want your food.’
Harvey Gray, 20, who also works at the seafront shop said: ‘It does happen on some occasions, mainly when the food is left unattended.
‘It depends if people are feeding them, if they are just minding their own business, they should be alright.’
When asked which foods are the seagull’s favourites, Mr Gray said: ‘Anything.’
Regular customer Chantelle Ellis, 41, a barber at Margate Barbers, said: ‘You are literally picking up your food and they will swoop while it is in your hand, there is no leaving it, you almost have to eat your food undercover on the seafront, it could be a sausage roll, it could be a portion of fish and chips, anything. It happens all the time.
When asked if she has seen visitors battling with the birds, she said: ‘Everyday. Everyday, and I will laugh, it’s a school boy error though if you are going to walk away from your chips, it is quite funny and they will scramble for them also, it can be brutal.’
Ms Ellis herself has been a victim of the greedy birds, she said: ‘They took my Big Mac from McDonalds, the whole thing as well.
‘I was sitting outside, picked up the burger and it just took the whole lot.’
Ice cream sellers seem to have fewer issues with thefts, but customers sitting to enjoy their meals at cafes do have to contend with the greedy gulls.
Georgia Parker, 21, who works in Cafe G, where our reporter bought her ice cream, said: ‘We do have a problem, especially in the summertime.
‘But it is more when the food is left out when it is busy. Things get broken as well, chinaware, glassware, that is obviously not good..
She added: ‘Yeah it is quite bad sometimes.’
When asked whether those enjoying ice cream need to watch the skies, she said: ‘I think it is just tables outside.
‘To be fair the seagulls round here aren’t too bad round here because we are a bit further back from the seafront, but I think if you take food on to the beach it is a nightmare.
‘I’ve done it as well, when I’ve gone onto the beach to watch the sunset, and they surround you.’
St Ives – one of Britain’s top tourist destinations – has been plagued by aggressive seagulls for years.
Our reporter told how one bird swooped across his face, causing him to turn his head away – while another expertly snatched the ice cream from his hand, sending it tumbling to the ground.
It was gone in 30 seconds, the cone and its contents devoured by a dozen gulls responsible had vanished just as quickly as they arrived.
But while a few tourists looked shocked, most people didn’t give it a second glance, such is the frequency of food thefts from the nuisance gulls.
With over half a million unprepared day trippers visiting the Cornish seaside town every summer, the intelligent wild gulls have swapped their cliff tops for roof tops.
On Monday, revealed resorts across the West Country are under siege from colonies of aggressive herring gulls with postmen forced to don helmets to make deliveries.
Locals revealed they have ‘never seen it as bad as this’ while Millie Harding, 20, a student and regular visitor to St Ives, said: ‘They are always doing this but today is particularly bad.
‘It doesn’t matter what you do or where you go, there are so many of them and they are so quick they just have a field day. I don’t eat anything outside while I’m down here, there’s no point.’
Our reporter then ordered his would-be lunch from one of St Ives’s many fish and chip shops.
A staff member said the trick to deterring attacks is to ‘look them in the eye’. However, she optimistically added: ‘I don’t know if that works but it’s worth a go’ before the final nail in the coffin ‘good luck’.
But our reporter found himself surrounded by gulls – and just nine seconds after he opened the box, half the chips were on the floor and he had to make a hasty retreat as they swooped.
St Ives is far from alone in enduring a gull problem in Cornwall. In the Poldhu Road and Cardinnis Gardens area of Liskeard, a colony of herring gulls known as ‘The Club’, has become so aggressive towards postal workers that some deliveries are being suspended without notice.
Residents say the nesting birds dive-bomb anyone they consider a threat to their young, claiming at least one postman has been spotted donning a safety helmet.
Another is said to have swapped his red uniform for ‘beige and grey colours’ in the belief that red antagonises the gulls. There have also been reports of one drawing blood after swooping to peck a postman on the head.
Some locals blame their neighbours for encouraging the birds to stay – either by deliberately feeding them or failing to put bags of rubbish into council-supplied wheelie bins.
But others believe the gull menace has simply intensified as the size of the colony has grown to over 60 birds. They claim they face daily disruption from aerial attacks and showers of gull excrement on paths, gardens and cars.
Supermarket worker Sarah Hunkin, 45, said: ‘I’ve lived here 17 years and I’ve never seen it as bad as this. This used to be a nice, tidy estate. Now the mess from the gulls is everywhere.
‘In the breeding season it is really hard to sleep. You hear their feet tapping across your roof and they screech in the middle of the night
‘They nest on roofs and when their young fall to the ground it sets them off. They see anyone approaching as a threat and they fly to the rescue. It’s reached the point where you don’t even want to walk out to your car in case you come under attack.’
Local gardening contractor Justin Pote said: ‘They fly in low like they’re bombing you. It feels like the council should rename this the Barnes-Wallis estate.
‘Once the babies have hatched everything goes quiet for a few weeks. Then the young start leaving the rooftop nests and fall to the ground.
‘If you happen to be nearby when that happens, watch out. The parents will see you as a threat and attack.’
But Mr Pote, 50, added: ‘This is a people problem, not a gull problem. Everyone has been given wheely bins but some still persist in putting out food waste in plastic bags. The gulls rip those to shreds – it’s easier to go for leftovers than to catch fish and crabs.
‘We had three breeding seasons last year and so that has obviously increased numbers.’
A woman visiting her elderly mother said she had repeatedly asked Cornwall Council to help deter the birds from nesting. ‘The council isn’t interested even though this is affecting people’s daily lives,’ she said.
‘Last week I met one postman who told me he’d swapped his normal uniform for neutral colours – grey and beige – because he’d been told gulls don’t like red. It seems ridiculous that it has come to this.’
Charlie Ball, who has lived on the estate for ten years, said: ‘In the past, one postman was left with blood running down his face after a gull attack.
‘And this year we’ve seen one wearing a mask and helmet on his rounds.
‘Some people bring the problem on themselves. One woman puts out a plate of food for them at 5pm every afternoon.’
Rose Dawson, 78, told how she found her beloved chihuahua Ceri barking madly at a gull which was ‘on her back in the garden’.
She said: ‘It did upset Ceri. But she soon got over it. The gulls don’t really bother me. I use a brolly to get from the door to my sunshade in the garden. That seems to work.
‘I do wonder if they get to know us locals and decide we’re not a problem. They are marvellous parents. They’ll do anything to protect their young.’
One resident, who asked not to be named, said the community had been deeply divided by the presence of the gulls.
‘There’s talk that one guy is threatening to shoot them with a BB gun,’ he said. ‘That is completely unacceptable. They’re a protected species. We should live and let live.’
Sheila Seccombe, 63, said: ‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having gulls around. If you feed them, what do you expect.’
And Carol Kent, 66, said she would do anything she could to defend the birds right to nest locally.
‘I’m all for them,’ she said. ‘Some people will moan about anything. Will they be complaining about the badgers and the foxes next?’
In a letter to residents last week Royal Mail’s customer operations manager for the Liskeard depot, Ryan Lean, wrote: ‘As you may be aware, we are currently experiencing some difficulties safely delivering to you and your neighbour due to seagulls in the area swooping at delivery staff to protect their young.
‘The purpose of this letter is to firstly advise you of the issues we are experiencing but also to assure you that we will continue to attempt deliveries every day.’
In fact most residents interviewed by confirmed that deliveries had not been significantly affected.
One study, commissioned by Liskeard Town Council six years ago, counted 151 seagulls in the town – almost all herring gulls.
In his report bird expert Peter Rock said they were particularly attracted to asbestos roofs – common in the Poldhu district – because these provided stability for nests.
He said any large collection of urban gulls – known as ‘The Club’ – saw roofs as ‘a place where they can rest in their down-time from other duties such as incubation without having to face problems of territoriality.’
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘The consistent delivery of mail and the safety of our employees are two of our highest priorities. We have written to residents to assure everyone that deliveries continue to be made every day.
‘However, on occasions where it is not possible to make a delivery safely, we will attempt to deliver the following day.’
Cornwall Council and Liskeard Town Council have been contacted for comment.
In another blow for holidaymakers down south, a study by the universities of Plymouth and Glasgow discovered that southern seagulls are more brazen than northern ones.
Using the Gulls Eye app, people noted their dealings with gulls. Early results found gulls were happier to come closer to Brits in the south.
In Brixham, Devon, gulls come within 40ft but in Glasgow they will stay twice as far away, at 80 ft.
Even further north in Shetland, the distance is more than 240ft on average.
In Looe, the town council tried to fight back against the gulls and ‘control’ the population.
But they were slapped down by Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a setback the council said was ‘undoubtedly a disappointment to residents’.
Even so, like many worried business owners around the country, they promised to continue suggesting ways to curb the rampant seagull population causing havoc.