A field guide to Iceland's coastal cliffs, wetlands & uplands — thirty regularly breeding species, plus the seasonal specialities and rare vagrants that sometimes turn up.

This finder introduces the birds you're genuinely likely to meet around Iceland's coasts, lakes, moors and towns — common, regular, and beginner-friendly species that form the backbone of birdwatching here. Each species has its own page below with identification notes, behaviour, a fun fact, and a place to log your sightings. Rare visitors and storm-blown wanderers are kept separate for reference, since chasing a bird that may never be seen again is a frustrating way to start birdwatching.

🔎 How to Birdwatch in Iceland

• Start at the coast — Iceland has far fewer garden birds than the UK or Ireland; the best beginner birding is at a harbour, coastal cliff, or nearby pond rather than a bird feeder.
• Best times — Late May to July is by far the richest season, when seabird cliffs and wetlands are busiest and the midnight sun gives almost endless daylight to watch by. Winter birding is quieter but rewarding along the coast for divers, gulls and eiders.
• Dress for the weather, not the calendar — Iceland's weather changes fast; layers and waterproofs matter more here than anywhere else in this series.

The four clues:

1. Size & shape — compare it to a Raven, Eider or Golden Plover you already know.
2. Colour & pattern — note the head, wings and any obvious markings first.
3. Behaviour — is it diving, dabbling, probing mud, or gliding stiff-winged along a cliff?
4. Habitat & sound — where is it, and what does it sound like?

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Did You Know? Iceland's Island Birdlife

Iceland's isolation in the North Atlantic means it has far fewer breeding bird species than the UK or Ireland — around 85 recorded regularly — but it makes up for it in sheer numbers and spectacle: the world's largest Atlantic Puffin colonies, the only regular European breeding Barrow's Goldeneyes, and some of the densest seabird cliffs on the planet. Because summers are short and winters long and dark, most Icelandic breeding birds are highly migratory, arriving in April or May and gone again by September — only a hardy handful, like the Raven, Ptarmigan, Gyrfalcon and Redwing, stay year-round. Many of the wildfowl that winter in Ireland and the UK, including Whooper Swans and Golden Plovers, are the very same birds that nested in Iceland months earlier.

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Species Sections

Seabirds & Coastal Cliffs

Wetlands & Lakes

Waders & Shorebirds

Uplands & Moorland

Birds of Prey