Three sea gulls, including a chick, were possibly the first beings on earth to learn that a new pope had been elected on Thursday.
Minutes before white smoke bellowed out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel — a sign that the conclave had ended with a winner — the birds flew in and perched themselves on the roof. After two days of drawing attention to themselves, they grabbed front-row seats to the show in which Robert Francis Prevost, an American, was named pope, taking the name Leo XIV.
As the conclave unfolded over the last two days and news channels around the globe focused their cameras on the chimney, the sea gulls of Rome flitted in and out of the shot, turning the city’s pests into global star attractions of a conclave that has become a social media moment.
On CNN on Wednesday, the anchor Erin Burnett, who was standing in St. Peter’s Square, noted that everyone “is paying attention” to those sea gulls — “when they leave, when they come back, there’s clapping.”
“They are a part of this story here at the Vatican,” she added.
Online, too, the sea gulls provided levity and entertainment on Wednesday. “Habemus Seagull,” Charlotte Clymer, a writer, posted on X — a twist on the Latin phrase “habemus papam,” which translates to “we have a pope.”
“Shout out to that one seagull locked in on the Conclave proceedings,” Father Cassidy Stinson, a priest in Virginia, posted on X. Others posted videos on TikTok of pet cats tuned into live streams of the chimney, batting at the sea gulls onscreen.
Some pondered the significance of the birds.
“Because we know nothing else about what’s going inside, we need a mascot and the seagulls have become the Conclave mascot,” Katie McGrady, a host on the Catholic Channel on SiriusXM and a Vatican analyst at CNN, said in an interview. It’s unlikely, though, that they’re omens or signs of any kind because, “as far as I know, God prefers to communicate with doves,” she added.
This is not the first time the sea gulls have inserted themselves into happenings at St. Peter’s Square. In 2013, when the previous pope was being elected, their cameos on the chimney spawned their own Twitter account and jokes and memes across the internet. In 2014, when the late Pope Francis released a peace dove for Ukraine, a hungry sea gull swooped in and attacked it.
It’s almost as if the sea gulls know how to leverage a good spotlight moment, Ms. McGrady said. “I feel like those little guys have some personality.”
Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering women’s health and health inequities.
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