I spend a lot of time photographing seabird colonies around Britain, and one lesson keeps nudging me every time I leave the path: the best images come from patience and respect, not aggression. Nesting birds are especially vulnerable during the breeding season. Disturb them and you can cause adults to flush from eggs or chicks, attract predators, or even make a colony abandon a site. In practice that means thinking as much about approach distances and behaviour as about camera settings. Here’s what I actually do on a cliff or shingle beach when seabirds are nesting.
Reading the birds before you raise the camera
Before I even put a lens to my eye I spend time watching. I look for three things: whether adults are sitting tight on nests, how alert they are, and whether there’s alarm calling. If birds sit calmly or barely move as I walk, that’s a good sign — but it isn’t permission to close the gap.
Many species signal disturbance long before they show panic. Head-tossing, alarm calls, and abrupt changes in posture are warning signs to back off. I always give birds a wide berth the first time I visit a colony and let them get used to me moving along established paths. If I see signs of distress at any point I stop shooting and increase distance.
Approach distances — a practical guide (not rules)
There’s no one-size-fits-all legal distance for wildlife photography; circumstances change with species, terrain and weather. I find it helpful to use rough distance bands and behavioural cues rather than fixed metres. These are what I use as starting points:
Comfort zone (safe): 50–100+ metres — Most mixed colonies are fine with a distant viewpoint. From here you can capture context shots: cliffs, colony structure, and flight lines.Observation zone (careful): 25–50 metres — Use a long lens or hide. Birds may be tolerant but keep movements slow and low; stop if you detect nervous behaviour.Close zone (high risk): under ~25 metres — Only approach this close when you know the site, the birds are habituated (rare) or you are using an authorised hide/blind. I avoid this unless absolutely necessary and permitted.Those bands vary: cliff-nesting gannets are often more tolerant of distant approaches than small terns on shingle. Puffins and auk species will sometimes endure closer observers on sea cliffs if paths are established, but inland nesting sites for species like terns can be particularly fragile and easily abandoned.
Species-specific notes
Puffins and auks (guillemots, razorbills): Generally more tolerant on cliffs if you stay on designated paths. Use a telephoto lens rather than getting close to ledges. Watch for adults leaving or returning to burrows — if they flush, you’re too close.Kittiwakes and fulmars: Build nests on ledges and can be territorial. Keep distance to avoid causing falls or attracting gulls.Gannets: Big, noisy and dramatic in flight; nests are often on cliffs or islands. Visitors can usually take dramatic flight shots from a distance with a long lens; don’t approach nests on breeding cliffs where eggs and chicks are exposed.Terns and plovers: Ground-nesters on beaches and shingle — highly susceptible to disturbance. Even casual walking can cause abandonment. Stay well out and respect fenced areas.Practical camera kit and why I choose it
On seabird duty I prioritise reach, flexibility and stability.
Long lenses: 300mm is the minimum I take; 400–600mm is ideal for close-looking, detailed portraits from a safe distance. I often work with a 100–400mm zoom for flexibility and a 400mm prime or 500–600mm for tighter headshots.Teleconverters: A 1.4x or 1.7x TC can be handy for extra reach, but be mindful of light loss and autofocus performance.Support: A lightweight tripod or monopod helps keep the camera steady for long focal lengths. I carry a small carbon-fibre tripod and use a gimbal head when tracking flight.Binoculars: Essential for initial observation — I rarely need to approach just to see what’s going on.Clothing: Neutral, non-reflective clothing and low-profile movement reduce the chance of alarming birds.Camera settings that work for colonies
Your settings depend on subject and light, but here are practical defaults I frequently use.
For perched/nesting birds: Aperture f/5.6–f/8 to balance subject isolation and enough depth of field for a bird on a nearby nest. Shutter speed 1/500s or faster to freeze small movements. ISO as low as conditions allow — modern cameras handle ISO 800–1600 cleanly in dull coastal light.For flying birds: Shutter speed 1/1000–1/2000s, especially for fast gannets or terns. Aperture f/4–f/6.3 to keep the lens fast; increase ISO to maintain shutter speed in soft light. Continuous AF and high frame rate are valuable — use burst mode.Focus mode: Continuous AF (AF-C) with a dynamic/zone focus area for flight; single-point AF for perched birds.Stabilisation: Use lens or body stabilisation when shooting handheld at long focal lengths, but turn it off on a tripod if it causes micro-movements.Format and white balance: Shoot RAW. White balance can be AWB, but set it to Cloudy on grey days if you want warmer tones straight away.Compositional tips from the cliff edge
Use ledges, the sea or sky as negative space to isolate a bird and show its environment.Shoot low if you can: a low angle often produces a more intimate feel and separates the subject from cluttered background.When photographing colonies, include contextual shots that show scale — a line of guillemots on a cliff or a distant island colony gives the viewer a sense of place.Ethics and fieldcraft — what I never do
I follow a simple rule: if my presence changes the birds’ behaviour, I am too close. That means:
No baiting: Never use food to attract birds.No nest handling: I do not touch eggs or chicks.No drones: Drones cause severe disturbance to colonies. I leave them at home unless part of an authorised research project.No rushing or sudden movements: Move slowly, keep low and avoid silhouetting yourself against the sky.Using hides, blinds and remotes
When you need to be closer than distance bands allow, a hide or remote camera is often the most responsible option. I sometimes set up a small ground blind well before dawn and leave it so birds can habituate, or use a remote trigger on a camera placed near a path with permission. These techniques require planning and, often, landowner consent — always seek permission and keep setups minimal and out of tramlines.
When to walk away
There are moments when even the best intentions aren't enough. If a bird starts alarm-calling, repeatedly returns to the nest and then flushes, or if gulls begin mobbing the area, I leave. Good photography means knowing when you’re out of shots and choosing the long-term wellbeing of a colony over a single frame.
Respectful approach distances, considered settings and calm behaviour will get you far. Often the images I value most are the ones that show birds behaving naturally — incubating, preening, or feeding chicks — and those only come when photographers act like visitors, not intruders.
