diff --git a/src/watchdog/observers/fsevents.py b/src/watchdog/observers/fsevents.py
index c3b29cd0..55c0ffcd 100644
--- a/src/watchdog/observers/fsevents.py
+++ b/src/watchdog/observers/fsevents.py
@@ -324,10 +324,16 @@ class FSEventsObserver(BaseObserver):
     def __init__(self, timeout=DEFAULT_OBSERVER_TIMEOUT):
         super().__init__(FSEventsEmitter, timeout=timeout)
 
-    def schedule(self, event_handler, path, recursive=False, event_filter=None):
+    def schedule(self, event_handler, path, recursive=True, event_filter=None):
         # Fix for issue #26: Trace/BPT error when given a unicode path
         # string. https://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog/issues#issue/26
         if isinstance(path, str):
             path = unicodedata.normalize("NFC", path)
 
+        if not recursive:
+            import warnings
+
+            warnings.warn("FSEvents requires and assumes recursive=True")
+            recursive = True
+
         return super().schedule(event_handler, path, recursive=recursive, event_filter=event_filter)
diff --git a/tests/test_fsevents.py b/tests/test_fsevents.py
index 540fb3b3..3a1623d0 100644
--- a/tests/test_fsevents.py
+++ b/tests/test_fsevents.py
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ def test_add_watch_twice(observer: BaseObserver, p: P) -> None:
     a = p("a")
     mkdir(a)
     h = FileSystemEventHandler()
-    w = ObservedWatch(a, recursive=False)
+    w = ObservedWatch(a, recursive=True)
 
     def callback(path, inodes, flags, ids):
         pass
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ def on_thread_stop(self):
     """
     a = p("a")
     mkdir(a)
-    w = observer.schedule(FileSystemEventHandler(), a, recursive=False)
+    w = observer.schedule(FileSystemEventHandler(), a)
     rmdir(a)
     time.sleep(0.1)
     observer.unschedule(w)
@@ -327,3 +327,9 @@ def on_any_event(self, event):
             observer.unschedule(watch)
         observer.stop()
         observer.join(1)
+
+def test_watchdog_assumes_recursive(p: P) -> None:
+    """See https://github.com/gorakhargosh/watchdog/issues/918"""
+    observer = Observer()
+    w = observer.schedule(FileSystemEventHandler(), ".")
+    assert w.is_recursive, "FSEvents should assume recursive mode"