Pelagic Birding Trips > Hout Bay > Cape Town
See albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters offshore on a pelagic birding tour run by an experienced Cape Town pelagic charter & crew – not a once-off outing. We have been running pelagic birding charters since 2015!
⚓ Experienced Crew
🐦 Expert Species ID
📍 Departs Hout Bay Harbour
📅 Trips Run Year-Round
Cape Town sits at the meeting point of two ocean currents and the edge of the continental shelf — which is exactly why it’s ranked among the best pelagic birding destinations on earth. On our pelagic birding tours, you’ll head out from Hout Bay into deep, nutrient-rich water where albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters gather in numbers you simply won’t see from land.
We run these trips on the same boats and with the same experienced offshore crew we use for our deep sea fishing charters, so you’re on the water with people who navigate this exact stretch of ocean every week — not a once-off outing. Whether you’re a lifer-chasing twitcher or just curious what a pelagic trip actually involves, this page covers everything you need to book your seat.
What Is a Pelagic Birding Trip?
“Pelagic” simply means “of the open sea” — so a pelagic birding trip is a boat trip taken specifically to see seabird species that spend almost their entire lives far offshore and rarely, if ever, come within sight of the coastline. Unlike a normal boat cruise, a pelagic trip heads out past the continental shelf edge, where upwellings bring food to the surface and attract birds that most land-based birders will never encounter. It’s the only realistic way to see species like albatrosses and true petrels in South Africa.
Why Cape Town Is a World-Class Pelagic Birding Destination
Few places on the planet put you this close to this many albatross and petrel species in a single day. Cape Town’s position at the tip of Africa, combined with the cold Benguela current and the nearby continental shelf edge, concentrates an extraordinary diversity of pelagic seabirds within a few hours’ boat ride of the harbour.
Birders travel to Cape Town from all over the world specifically for this — it regularly out-performs pelagic tours run out of Australia, the UK and the US Atlantic coast for sheer number of albatross species seen in a single outing.
Why Book Your Pelagic Trip With an Offshore Fishing Charter
Most pelagic birding operators in Cape Town run birding as their only product. We come at it from the other direction — we’re an established deep sea fishing charter first, which means our boats, skippers and crew already spend their working lives running long offshore routes into exactly the kind of deep water where pelagic seabirds feed.
That’s a genuinely different kind of experience: a crew used to reading sea and weather conditions daily, boats built and maintained for extended offshore runs, and none of the guesswork of a trip put together specifically and only for one outing.
Seabirds You Can Expect to See
Sightings vary by season and conditions, but a typical Cape Town pelagic birding trip regularly turns up:
Pelagic Birding Trip Details
Best Time of Year for Pelagic Trips from Cape Town
Pelagic birding trips run out of Cape Town year-round, but the mix of species shifts with the seasons – winter months typically bring the highest diversity and numbers of albatrosses, while summer trips can turn up different shearwater and storm-petrel activity. Trips are subject to weather conditions.
Pelagic Birding Tour Prices
Our pelagic birding tour costs
From R30,000 per charter
Get in touch for current availability and group rates.
Recent Pelagic Birding Trip Reports
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West Coast Rock Lobster Season 2025
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Book Your Cape Town Pelagic Birding Tour
Ready to see albatrosses and petrels up close? Trips are weather-dependent and seats are limited, so we recommend booking ahead of your preferred date. Contact us to find out more about our charter schedule .
Frequently Asked Questions
A fishing charter with experienced offshore crew is well suited to running pelagic birding trips — the boats and skippers already handle the same deep-water routes, sea conditions and safety requirements. The main difference is having a birding guide aboard to help with species identification, which we have. Our skipper as well as professional birding guides run the charter all whom have extensive birding knowledge.
A normal sightseeing or fishing charter stays relatively close to shore. A pelagic tour is purpose-built to reach the continental shelf edge, far beyond where standard charters go, because that’s where the deep-sea upwellings concentrate the seabird species that never come near the coast.
Binoculars, a camera with a zoom lens if you have one, sunscreen and a hat, a warm windproof jacket (it’s noticeably colder on open water), and seasickness tablets if needed. A selection of food, snacks & drinks are provided.
Yes – no prior birding experience is needed, and our guides help identify species as they appear. Because the trip covers open ocean swell, we recommend taking a seasickness remedy the night before and morning of your trip if you’re at all prone to motion sickness, and dressing in warm, windproof layers.
Expect a mix of albatrosses (Shy, Black-browed, Atlantic Yellow-nosed), petrels (White-chinned, Pintado/Cape, Great-winged), shearwaters (Sooty, Cory’s), Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, skuas and Cape Gannet, among others. Exact sightings depend on the day, season and sea conditions.
Cape Town pelagic trips run somewhere between 5 and 9 hours, since reaching the shelf edge and back takes time. It is also subject to weather conditions and the location of birds.
Pelagic charter prices depend on number of people on board. A charter is charged as a boat fee per boat and is subject to the ever changing fuel prices. Contact us for current pelagic trip costs.
Our pelagic birding trips depart from Hout Bay harbour, Cape Town.
In South Africa, a pelagic trip usually refers to a chartered boat trip departing from a Cape Town harbour out to the edge of the continental shelf, where the cold Benguela current and shelf-edge upwellings attract one of the highest concentrations of albatross and petrel species found anywhere in the world.
“Pelagic” is a term describing anything that lives in the open ocean, away from the coastline or seabed – as opposed to “coastal” or “benthic” (seafloor-dwelling) species. In birding, a “pelagic species” is a seabird that spends almost its entire life at sea, only coming to land to breed.
A pelagic trip is a boat trip taken specifically to see seabirds — like albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters — that live far out at sea and don’t normally come close to shore. Rather than a sightseeing cruise, the boat heads out past the continental shelf edge specifically to reach the water these species live in.