Pelagic birding comes with its own vocabulary, and a lot of it gets used on operator websites and trip reports without ever being explained. If you’ve seen “tubenose,” “chumming,” or “shelf break” mentioned and weren’t sure exactly what was meant, this glossary is for you. It’s organised into four groups: the birds, the ocean, life on the boat, and the practical terms you’ll run into when researching a trip.
The Birds
Tubenose. The informal name for the order Procellariiformes — albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels — named for the tubular nostrils on their bills. The tube houses a salt gland and, in most species, an unusually sharp sense of smell used to find food and chum slicks from far away. Every bird a pelagic trip specifically targets is, with a few exceptions like jaegers and phalaropes, a tubenose.
Albatross. The largest tubenoses, with wingspans up to 3.5 metres in the great albatrosses, built for near-effortless dynamic soaring over Southern Ocean swells. See where to see albatrosses worldwide.
Petrel. A broad term covering several genera within the tubenoses. “Gadfly petrels” (genus Pterodroma) are fast, high-arcing fliers that can be maddeningly difficult to identify at range; “true petrels” and giant petrels are heavier-bodied. See best places to see petrels.
Shearwater. Technically also petrels, but conventionally listed separately. Named for their stiff-winged flight style, banking low over the water so one wingtip nearly “shears” the surface. See best places to see shearwaters.
Storm-petrel. The smallest tubenoses — often barely bigger than a swallow — that flutter, patter, or “walk” on the water’s surface while feeding. Split into two unrelated families (Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm-petrels) that look similar but evolved separately. See best places to see storm-petrels.
Jaeger / Skua. Two names for the same family (Stercorariidae). American usage reserves “skua” for the two large species and “jaeger” for the three smaller, more agile ones; British and most other English-speaking birders call all five “skuas.” Both terms describe fast, piratical seabirds that chase other birds to steal their catch — a behaviour called kleptoparasitism. See best places to see jaegers and skuas.
Alcid. A member of the auk family (Alcidae) — puffins, murres, guillemots, murrelets, and auklets. Alcids are Northern Hemisphere birds that “fly” underwater with their wings to chase fish, and are a major target on many North Pacific and North Atlantic pelagics. See best places to see puffins and auks.
Phalarope. A small shorebird that, unusually, spends the non-breeding season swimming on the open ocean, spinning in tight circles to stir up food. Phalaropes are one of the few pelagic targets that aren’t tubenoses. See best places to see phalaropes.
Lifer / life bird. A species you’re seeing for the first time ever. Pelagic trips are prized precisely because they’re often the only realistic way to add tubenoses, jaegers, and alcids to a life list.
The Ocean
Continental shelf. The relatively shallow, gently sloping seabed that extends from a coastline before dropping off steeply into deep ocean. Many productive pelagic zones sit right at the shelf break — the point where the shelf ends and the seabed plunges — because nutrient-rich deep water is forced upward there.
Upwelling. The process by which deep, cold, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface, usually where currents, wind, or underwater terrain push it up. Upwelling zones support the plankton and fish that seabirds feed on, which is why they’re where operators run their trips.
Submarine canyon. An underwater valley cut into the continental shelf, often bringing deep water unusually close to shore. Monterey Bay’s canyon and Kaikoura’s canyon are two of the best-known examples, both prized because they shorten the boat ride needed to reach productive water.
Seamount / bank. An underwater mountain or shallow rise, often far from any coastline, that forces deep currents upward the same way a shelf break does. Trips to a specific seamount or bank (like Spain’s Banco de la Concepción) are usually longer, multi-day expeditions because of the distance involved.
Boundary current. A major current running along a coastline — the cold Humboldt Current off Peru and Chile, the cold Benguela Current off southern Africa, and the warm Gulf Stream off the US East Coast are the three most cited in this directory. These currents concentrate nutrients and seabirds along predictable routes, which is why so many long-running pelagic operations sit on one of them.
On the Boat
Chumming / chum slick. Trailing fish oil, ground bait fish, or other scented material behind the boat to draw seabirds in close. The resulting oily trail on the water is the chum slick. Not every operator chums — some work in protected waters where it’s restricted.
Seawatch / seawatching. Scanning for seabirds from a fixed point on land, usually a headland or point that funnels migrating birds close to shore, rather than from a boat. Several trips in this directory (like the North Minch in Scotland) pair a boat trip with nearby land-based seawatching spots.
At the rail. Standing at the boat’s railing actively scanning and photographing — the default activity for most of a pelagic trip’s daylight hours.
Half-day / full-day / multi-day. The three broad trip lengths. Half-day trips (4–6 hours) stay closer to shore; full-day trips (8–12 hours) are the standard format and reach the shelf break or a nearby canyon; multi-day trips are liveaboard expeditions that reach remote banks, seamounts, or island groups. Our trip-cost guide breaks down what each format typically costs.
Practical Terms
Operator. The company or individual running the boat and trip. This directory only lists dedicated pelagic operators — trips specifically built around finding seabirds, with an experienced leader and usually chumming — rather than general whale-watching or fishing charters where seabirds are incidental.
eBird hotspot. A named, shared birding location in eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s global sightings database. Most trip pages in this directory link to the eBird hotspot covering the waters a trip visits, so you can check what’s actually been recorded there recently.
Trip report. A birder’s written (or photo) account of a specific pelagic trip, usually posted to eBird, a blog, or a birding forum after the fact, listing species seen and conditions on the day. Reading a few recent trip reports for an operator is one of the best ways to gauge what a trip is really like before booking.
Dark morph / light morph. Some pelagic species — jaegers and skuas especially — occur in two or more distinct colour forms within the same species, unrelated to age or sex. Both morphs can turn up on the same trip, and telling them apart from a genuinely different species is a common identification challenge offshore.
Ready to put these terms to use? Browse the full trip directory or start with our beginner’s guide to pelagic birding and gear checklist for what to bring.