Coordinated movements of seabirds exploiting a prey patch are known to increase prey encounter and capture rates of individuals. These behaviours, based on effective cooperation between seabirds, have only been reported at small scale, i.e. the scale of the prey patch. However, the efficient prey exploitation by seabirds in vast oceans require larger scale processes such as information transfers between individuals. Indeed, information transfers between foraging seabirds (e.g. changes in behaviour) reduce their search cost while increasing their prey encounter rate. Whether or not these information transfer processes imply active cooperation is unknown. Using images from fishing boat radars in the eastern tropical Atlantic, we show the existence of frequent medium‐scale patterns of coordinated flights of seabird groups, consisting in seabird fronts (‘rake’ patterns) of 0.3–4.4 km width, displacing cohesively over 1.2–10.6 km and lasting between 2 and 19 min. For these rakes to be maintained, seabird groups have to adjust their flight speeds and directions, while they are on average distant of 500 m from each other, what cannot occur by chance. These findings suggest the existence of collective and coordinated movements in seabirds during prey searching at several kilometres’ scale. This potential cooperation between foraging seabird groups brings new insight in the evolutionary trajectories of seabirds life‐style.

中文翻译：

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耙海面：海鸟协调运动的新模式

利用猎物斑块协调海鸟运动会增加猎物的遭遇并捕获个体的捕获率。这些行为基于海鸟之间的有效合作，仅在小规模（即猎物斑块的规模）上得到了报道。然而，在广阔的海洋中海鸟对猎物的有效利用需要更大范围的过程，例如个人之间的信息传递。确实，觅食海鸟之间的信息传递（例如行为变化）降低了搜索成本，同时增加了猎物的遭遇率。这些信息传输过程是否暗示着积极合作尚不得而知。利用热带东部大西洋地区渔船雷达提供的图像，我们显示了海鸟群协调飞行的频繁中等规模模式的存在，包括宽度为0.3–4.4 km的海鸟前缘（“耙状”图案），在1.2–10.6 km的范围内凝聚移动，持续2至19分钟。为了保持这些耙，海鸟组必须调整其飞行速度和方向，而它们之间平均相距500 m，这是偶然发生的。这些发现表明，在猎物搜索过程中，海鸟存在集体和协调运动，其规模为几公里。觅食海鸟群体之间的这种潜在合作为海鸟生活方式的演变轨迹带来了新的见解。虽然它们之间平均相距500 m，但不会偶然发生。这些发现表明，在猎物搜索过程中，海鸟存在集体和协调运动，其规模为几公里。觅食海鸟群体之间的这种潜在合作为海鸟生活方式的演变轨迹带来了新的见解。虽然它们之间平均相距500 m，但不会偶然发生。这些发现表明，在猎物搜索过程中，海鸟存在集体和协调运动，其规模为几公里。觅食海鸟群体之间的这种潜在合作为海鸟生活方式的演变轨迹带来了新的见解。