An 11-year-old who went viral for his seagull-mimicking skills says he had a “whale of a time” judging a screeching competition.

Cooper was the guest of honour at the first ever Weston-super-Mare Seagull Screeching Championship earlier.

‘Seagull Boy’ became an overnight sensation aged just nine after winning a European championship in 2024, and went on to defend his title in April.

“I like how people are trying to make the world a better world by screeching,” he said.

The seagull enthusiast, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, was invited to judge two competitions – one for under-12s and another for teenagers and adults.

David Peters, tourism marketing officer for Weston-super-Mare, said: “We saw Cooper on television and on the internet – he was all over the place.

“Basically, as soon as we saw him, we just thought that we had to get him down to Weston-super-Mare.

“It is just such a fun event and he is so good at what he does that we just thought ‘this is so Weston’.”

The competition took place at the Stacks Lounge.

“There were so many good people doing a really good noise, so it was very hard and quite scary to pick who was going to be the winner,” Cooper said.

Contestants had different reasons for taking part and were seen soothing their throats with lozenges in preparation.

Simon, from Nailsea, said: “My girlfriend entered me into it, who tells me I’m not allowed to do it when we’re out and about, but I just can’t help it.”

The winner of the adult competition was Scott Milton from Weston-super-Mare.

Since first going viral in 2024, Cooper has been interviewed by TV and radio stations around the world, was followed by a Korean film crew for three days as part of a documentary about seagulls and even won €1,000 (£867) on a German game show.