Birds Aiding Landfall

Sea birds provide aid for navigators making the last few hours of a voyage searching for land. Terns, fairy and noddy, the booby and frigate birds fish at sea and return to land at night. The behaviour of  these birds during the day is not an indication of land direction, but towards evening they turn and head to land. The frigate-bird is largest with a wing span of 2 meters and does not land on water, feeding by snatching fish from water. In the evening they abandon leisurely patrolling and climb higher and set off in one direction for land probably by sight which may be up to 100 km away.

At the same time boobies stop inquisitive surface inspections and fly low and arrow straight for the horizon. When the noddies depart for land they will weave in and out of the crests larger waves. The terns fly slightly higher and follow the same path to land.

In the Caroline Islands the white terns and noodies were the most common and widely used birds and were up to 40 km from land. Boobies can be considered the most favoured of all bird guides as they circle vessels and try to land on rigging, and so are easlily noticed and eventually fly unerring toward home, usually at a maximum of 50 km away. 

Sooty Tern

Frigate-bird

Masked Booby

Black Noddy Tern

Fairy Tern