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17 September 2024
Bird Mode on a Raymarine radar allows captains to identify sea birds in-flight at greater distances.
To be successful, experienced coastal fishermen use many different techniques to help them find likely schools of fish more quickly. Along with weather patterns, moon phases, tidal heights and current flows, nature offers anglers a great clue to the presence of feeding fish, in the form of bird activity.
Sea birds have developed incredibly sensitive eyesight and can see baitfish just below the water's surface. Marine radars help you detect these birds at greater distances than the human eye can manage, often several miles away, and that can lead you straight to the bite.
Birds move differently from other radar targets and therefore appear differently on your screen. Learning to recognize what birds look like on radar lets you identify prime fishing spots that are too far away to see with the naked eye. Bird Mode on select Raymarine scanners adjusts gain, clutter, and color palette so weak, fast‑changing bird returns are easier to spot.
Image: Bird Mode identifies a flock of birds on radar flying in-between a buoy and an island, also visible on the radar. The blue-green haze surrounding the yellow target is the typical signature for bird activity
We spoke with Captain Terry Nugent, owner of Riptide Charters. Based in Swansboro, North Carolina, Nugent has been fishing the waters from Cape Cod to Mexico for more than 45 years. During that time, he has perfected his “run‑and‑gun” technique using a 12 kW Magnum open‑array radar and Axiom 2 XL displays to detect and track birds at long distances, anticipate their movement, and position his boat ahead of migrating fish. The approach keeps him in productive water and his clients on fish. “We’ve had great luck catching bonito, false albacore, and even bluefin tuna using the Raymarine radar to find the birds,” says Nugent. “Birds like gannets and terns are common in the coastal waters here and are easy to identify on radar.”
Nugent switches to Bird Mode, which adapts gain and sensitivity to make bird detection possible. “The flocks of birds are readily apparent on radar. One of the key things I look for is the motion of the flock. When the cluster of bird targets is expanding, the birds are still on the hunt. When the flock contracts, they are on the fish and that is the time to move in their direction.” He often runs gain between 92 and 94 percent, keeps sea and rain clutter at zero if conditions allow, and uses Power Boost on Magnum to maximize weak target detection.
(Terry Nugent, owner of Riptide Charters on Cape Cod, MA)
What should you look for? Nugent watches for single and clustered targets in the blue‑green to blue part of the color palette and tailors expectations to local species. Gulls tend to fly as singles, spaced apart until one finds fish, then others rush to the action. Terns often fly and hunt in tight packs, producing a cluster that changes shape from sweep to sweep. Observing species and behavior whenever possible pays off when you are running offshore and depending on radar alone.
Image: Clustered, active sea birds in the air indicate baitfish below, as seen on SideVision sonar.
All marine radar can detect birds to some degree, but certain hardware has advantages. Open‑array antennas focus energy into a narrower beam and have greater receive aperture, improving sensitivity to small, weak aerial targets. Higher power also increases useful detection range. Some Raymarine scanners offer faster rotation, which can make the changing shape of a flock more obvious from sweep to sweep.
Bird Mode is a standard feature on both Cyclone and Magnum open-array radars as well as our 18- and 24-inch HD Color radome scanners. Magnum systems have proven to be best suited for bird finding due to their winning combination of powerful 4kW or 12kW transmitters and the high sensitivity of their large 4- and 6-foot open arrays. Birds are challenging targets to see with radar due to their very small radar cross section, poor reflectivity, and tendency for their radar signatures to be masked by clutter, caused by wave tops in rough ocean conditions. Magnum radars have proven themselves to be the best all-around bird finders, and as a general rule the larger and more powerful, the better.
Image: A Magnum 12 kW Radar with a 4-foot array is a great bird-finding tool
Another helpful tool for spotting bird activity is the radar’s Trails feature. When enabled, Trails draw a short, colorized wake behind moving echoes, creating a visual history of recent motion. Stationary targets don’t generate trails, which helps you separate true movement from background returns. You control Trails in the Target settings menu, where you can turn them on, choose Reference mode (True or Relative), and set the Trails period to determine how many minutes of motion history are shown. For bird tracking choose a trails period of 30 seconds or 1 minute when starting out.
Image: With True Trails enabled you’ll see a blue wake history behind any target that moves, including sea birds.
For bird finding, set Trails to True. In True reference mode, the system plots motion over ground (COG), so each trail represents the birds’ actual travel path, and by extension, the direction bait and gamefish are moving. In LightHouse 4, True is color‑coded blue, while Relative is orange, making it easy to confirm your selection at a glance.
Image: Axiom’s Target Settings menu is where you enable moving target Trails
Relative Trails can help in close‑quarters maneuvering, but because they are referenced to your boat’s motion, flock movement can look distorted when you’re turning, accelerating, or drifting in current. True removes your vessel’s movement from the picture, giving you a cleaner track of the birds themselves and a more reliable cue for where to set up your next pass. You can toggle the reference quickly from the onscreen Image adjustment menu when conditions change.
Working flocks rarely stay put; they circle, dive, and reposition as predators push bait to the surface. On your display, that constant motion produces a tight cluster of small echoes, each building a short trail. Over a few minutes, the motion history condenses into a compact patch of colorized activity that stands out from surrounding returns, making active birds easier to distinguish from random speckle or sea clutter. If the picture gets busy during a hot bite, clear the screen and start fresh without changing other radar settings.
Once you understand how Trails reveal motion on the screen, the next step is knowing exactly where to set them up. LightHouse 4 places Trails, Reference mode, and Trails period under Target settings so you can switch Trails on, choose True or Relative, and decide how much past movement to plot.
Image: Use the Display Adjustment button on the lower left corner of the radar for quick access to the True reference mode, and to clear the accumulated trails as needed
When the screen becomes cluttered - a natural occurrence when action builds - use the Image adjustment menu’s Clear trails command to wipe the motion history instantly and continue scanning. This keeps Trails useful in real time without affecting your other radar controls.
Tip: If multiple clusters start to overlap and obscure directionality, clear Trails and rebuild a shorter history window to highlight the flock that matters most right now.
Radar can even pick up birds when you cannot see them because of land. Birds dive from altitude and can be detected by radar even when terrain blocks your view at water level. This can help you work around points, bars, and bluffs and still stay on the action.
Image: Because of their height above the water, bird flocks can sometimes be detected behind landmass, as illustrated here
For a charter captain, having multiple tools matters. When a bite shuts off, being able to fire up radar, spot birds at range, and run to the next push keeps lines tight and clients smiling. With some practice, careful tuning, and the occasional tweak to your settings, radar becomes a powerful ally for finding fish fast.
Discover the latest Raymarine radar systems and learn how radar can help you to improve your situational awareness, navigate safely and keep you on the fish.
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