Uploaded on 21 October 2025.
Iceland is a dream destination for travelers everywhere, possessing a natural beauty that is hard to rival. From lush meadows to meandering coastlines, fjords to waterfalls, volcanic peaks to upland lakes, there is hardly a view in Iceland that is not at least breathtaking. This Arctic paradise is also home to an abundance of birdlife, including several iconic and sought-after species. I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks in Iceland in June this year with Birding Ecotours and I was thoroughly impressed by the birding on offer here. While it is not rated by most birders as a must-visit destination, Iceland provides an excellent gateway into Arctic birding, providing close encounters with unique and inspiring species with minimal difficulty. From multitudes of displaying shorebirds to Arctic specials and masses of waterfowl, birding in Iceland has an appeal to any caliber of birdwatcher.
An Atlantic Puffin against a volcanic peak – only in Iceland!
At Birding Ecotours, we offer a comprehensive birding tour of Iceland, covering all the major sites and spectacles including seabird cliffs, thermal lakes and even pelagic birding. If you’re feeling the urge to plan a trip to Iceland with a specific focus on birding, I would highly recommend joining this tour. To aid in your Iceland birding preparation, I have put together a list of the most desirable bird species in Iceland. These are all species that breed in Iceland every year and are targetable on our tour, although some are understandably trickier to find than others. So, without further ado, here’s my pick of the top 10 birds to see while visiting this spectacular destination.
- Atlantic Puffin – Rainbow-billed and much-loved
It feels only right to begin this list with Iceland’s most famous and iconic bird species. With its stout stature, rainbow-colored bill and quirky personality, the Atlantic Puffin is Iceland’s most loved avian denizen and is adored by both birders and non-birders alike. All tourists visiting Iceland will want to visit one of the many puffin colonies scattered around the island, namely the cliffs at Latrabjarg, as well as the islets of Flatey and Grimsey. However, Atlantic Puffins are more common around Iceland than people realize, and scanning the sea anywhere along the coast is bound to reveal squadrons of puffins speeding low over the water towards their colonies or fishing grounds.
Being members of the auk family, puffins aren’t the best flyers, and their small wings are better suited for hunting fish underwater rather than for aerial agility. This makes them very successful fishermen, their large bills enabling them to carry 10-15 sand eels at once. However, this makes them vulnerable to attacks from Parasitic Jaegers that attempt to pirate fish from them as the return to their burrows, while Great Black-backed Gulls and Great Skuas hunt the puffins themselves. Nevertheless, puffin parents are tireless and will ferry food back and forth, from sea to chick, 4-5 times a day for over a month. After the chick has fledged, they remain at sea for 2-3 years, with their magnificently colored bills becoming fully developed after a further 2-3 years.
Few birds are as recognizable as an Atlantic Puffin in full breeding splendor!
- Harlequin Duck – The sharply dressed whitewater rafter
Another stout waterbird garnered in black, white and red, the Harlequin Duck is just as, if not, more handsome than the Atlantic Puffin. This is arguably one of the fanciest-looking ducks, with the male sporting blinding white blazes against a smooth, sooty background with rich, chestnut accents. However, for all its dashing style, Harlequin Ducks are rather small, unobtrusive birds and spotting them in their favored habitat of rocky, rapid-strewn rivers and shorelines, can prove challenging. Fortunately, they are not rare in Iceland, and I encountered them frequently where rivers and streams fed into open fjords with stony banks. They are usually seen in pairs or loose groups of 6-10 individuals, with an exceptional sighting of 20 roosting males being one of the highlights of my trip!
Harlequin Ducks are primarily a subarctic species, being mostly found along the coasts of northeast Russia, Alaska, British Colombia, eastern Canada, southern Greenland and Iceland. They have a strong association with white water, and breed along fast-flowing streams that are strewn with stones and boulders. Non-breeding birds live on the coast, but stay true to form by choosing rocky shorelines with obvious promontories and diving below the breakers to feed. Their dense plumage traps a lot of air within and keeps them warm in the frigid water. This, coupled with their small size, causes them to bounce like corks when they surface. Birders actively pursuing their Western Palearctic list would be easily enticed to Iceland by these ducks, since it’s the only spot in the biogeographic realm where they are found. Undoubtedly one of the best birds in Iceland!
Despite the male’s exquisite markings, Harlequin Ducks can be hard to spot when resting on stony river banks.
- Common Loon – The regal wailer
Loons are a staple of Arctic waterbirding, and Iceland is blessed to host two breeding species. While both are truly stunning charmers, I’ve decided to only include the Common Loon on this list since it is larger, less abundant, more strikingly patterned and more famed! Truly there are few birds which can match the regality of a Common Loon in breeding plumage. With its stripey necklace, finely spangled upperparts and blood-red eyes, it really is an impressive beast! The plumage of loons is also uniquely smooth, almost skin-like, which only adds to their regalia. It’s almost a shame that these birds only dress like this for part of the year!
As much as the Common Loon has good looks, it is better known for its voice. Even a non-birder would be able to recognize the mournful wail of a loon carrying across a still Arctic. This is because the wailing cry of the Common Loon is one of the most frequently used bird calls in movies and television, often added into a scene to create a sense of suspense or sombreness. This is a regularly heard sound in Iceland, particularly around large lakes. While it was nothing more than a general trend I observed, it seems that the Common Loonsin Iceland prefer to inhabit larger lakes than the more common Red-throated Loons, which didn’t mind anything bigger than a swimming pool. This would possibly be due to the larger size of the Common Loon, requiring more food and therefore, bigger hunting territories. However, I did witnessed multiple instances of both species sharing the same lake. Loons are also known for carrying their chicks on their backs, which I was fortunate enough to witness on one occasion!
The intricate patterning on a breeding Common Loon is tough to match.
- Snow Bunting – The hardy songbird of Arctic extremes
Passerines do not feature a lot in Iceland, with only around 12 breeding species present. However, one of them, the aptly-named Snow Bunting, is easily one of the most interesting and attractive birds to see in Iceland. Despite its small size, this piebald seedeater is a true Arctic special, being incredibly resilient to the polar weather. It breeds in high Arctic tundra and moorland where they nest in rockpiles, boulder fields and even building debris around towns. In Iceland, they seem to be scarce on the main island, but are common and easy to find on the offshore Isles of Grimsey and Flatey. The latter was a particularly good spot for them, with many males singing their delicate songs from the rooftops of the residents’ houses. Females possess varying degrees of brown staining, but are still striking little birds.
Despite its name, the Snow Bunting is not a true bunting, but rather a kind of longspur: six terrestrial, sparrow-like birds that occupy various open habitats across North America and Eurasia. Snow Buntings are also migratory, moving down to coasts and lowlands of central Europe and North America during the boreal winter. They have remarkable adaptations to help them cope with such an extreme lifestyle. One of these includes drastically increasing their body fat by 30% before their northward migration. This ensure that they have enough energy for breeding in the cold Arctic, and explains why they tend to look chunkier at this time of year. Female Snow Buntings will also lay their eggs as soon as temperatures increase above freezing, a testament to their hardiness as small songbirds. They are also the only bird that stays year-round on Grimsey Island (Iceland’s northernmost point, that actually crosses into the Arctic Circle!).
The striking black-and-white plumage of Snow Buntings make them easy to spot.
- White-tailed Eagle – The sea raptor making a great comeback
While passerines are poorly represented in Iceland, raptors are even more so, with only four breeding raptor species on the island. The White-tailed Eagle is the largest bird of prey in Iceland, and is found across much of northern Eurasia. With its large size, bright yellow bill and bold white tail, it is an impressive predator that occupies the coastlines and fjords of western Iceland. In many ways the eastern counterpart of the famous Bald Eagle, the White-tailed Eagle lives around large lakes, rivers, estuaries and coastal areas, where they catch fish plucked from just below the surface in low, swooping flights. They are also opportunists and will frequently scavenge carrion and offal where they can.
White-tailed Eagles had once approached extinction in Iceland, with the population reduced to 20 pairs in the 1960s. This was primarily due to the use of harmful poison set out by farmers to kill Arctic Foxes. The birds would ingest the poison upon scavenging the dead foxes and so would succumb to it themselves. After the use of these compounds was banned in Iceland in 1964, the White-tailed Eagle population slowly began to increase, finally gaining traction in the mid 1970s. The population currently stands at around 80-90 pairs, most of which are located in the Westfjords: the large peninsula that forms Iceland’s northwestern corner. I only ever saw two individuals during my trip, but one sighting was made interesting by a feisty Merlin mobbing the poor eagle that was simply minding its own business!
White-tailed Eagles only attain their fully white tails after eight years.
- Short-eared Owl – The most aerial of owls
Another one of Iceland’s aerial hunters is the Short-eared Owl. These are the only owl species that regularly occurs in Iceland (Snowy Owl is rare) and is best sought in the rolling hills and moors of northern Iceland, particularly near Akureyri and Lake Myvatn (the latter one of Iceland’s top birding hotspots). Unlike most owls, Short-eared Owls are highly diurnal, and occupy open, treeless environs where they adopt a very different hunting technique to other owl species. They spend a lot of time flying low over open fields in a seemingly aimless, meandering manner, scanning the ground below for small mammals that they pick up using keen hearing. Upon finding a suitable prey item, the bird will turn quickly and drop onto it before flying to a concealed place to consume its catch. This hunting flight style, known as quartering, is very much akin to the way harriers hunt and is only adopted by this owl and the related Marsh Owl of Africa.
Another notable difference between Short-eared Owls and their congeners is that they are strongly migratory. Most breed in northern Eurasia and North America and winter across Europe, southern Asia, Mexico and the southern United States. Their aerial agility and prowess is rather unusual for an owl, and they have even been seen migrating over stretches of ocean! One of the four that I saw in Iceland was even wind-hovering high above the ground, like a kestrel! Thanks to their similar hunting behavior to harriers, they often compete with harriers for food sources and frequently get into altercations with Northern Harriers in North America. There is also a strange, separate population in South America that appears to be quite sedentary, with birds thereof being darker and browner than those from the north.
Short-eared Owls are most often seen in flight, with perched individuals being rather skittish.
- Red Phalarope – The rare, red spinner
Phalaropes are small shorebirds that have adopted a far different way of life to their wading counterparts. Their short legs and flattened, paddle-like toes are perfect for swimming along the surface like a duck. They also exhibit the strange behavior of spinning on the surface by paddling with one foot. This creates a vortex which brings up food from below the bird’s normal reach. Two species are Arctic breeders that both occur in Iceland. The Red-necked Phalarope is quite common on most open water bodies, while the larger and more colorful Red Phalarope is rare and only breeds on a few scattered islets including Flatey Island on the west coast. In fact, I unfortunately missed the Red Phalarope on my visit to Iceland. Their low numbers on the island make them tricky to connect with, but this is still one of the most accessible places for people to see Red Phalaropes when they’re…well…red!
Red Phalaropes breed across the Arctic tundra. During the non-breeding season, they migrate towards the tropics and spend the season floating out at sea. It is then that they also trade their stunning red breeding plumage for a plainer, white and grey attire. This is generally how most people see them, so having the opportunity to see them when they are red is exactly why the Red Phalarope makes this list. Another quirky fact to add to the phalarope’s appeal is its breeding behaviour. Unlike most birds, the typical roles of male and female are reversed. Where it’s usually the male that is bigger, more colorful and protects the territory, in phalaropes, that role belongs to the female. The male is the drabber of the two, and he is responsible for raising the chicks after they’ve hatched.
The white mask and black cap identify this Red Phalarope as a female.
- Rock Ptarmigan – The snoring snow chicken
The only gamebird found in Iceland, the Rock Ptarmigan is quite a characterful fowl. With their red eye combs, beautifully marbled plumage and snow-white wings and legs, a male Rock Ptarmigan standing proud against the backdrop of Iceland’s green meadows is a special sight. These “snow chickens” were a near-daily occurrence on my trip, particularly in the early morning and evening (hard to tell in a land where the sun never sets!). At these times, they are easy to pick up by the strange, dry creaking sound that is their song, or by almost running them over as they trot across the road at a snail’s pace (ask me how I know that)! One memorable ptarmigan sighting I had during my trip was of a female attempting to take a dust bath on a damp clay road, while another involved a male standing in a parking lot in the middle of a downpour. Not sure what either one was trying to achieve, but as you can see, they can be quite amusing!
Rock Ptarmigans are a type of grouse: a tribe of gamebirds characterized by fully feathered legs, eye combs, narrow wings and, in some species, elaborate displays performed by the males at communal display sites called leks. While ptarmigans are not the most flamboyant of grouse, they make up for it with their incredible plumage transformations from season to season. In winter, their earthy brown mottling is traded for completely snow-white plumage: one of the most extreme examples of seasonal change in any bird. This trait is shared with the other two ptarmigan species: the Willow Ptarmigan of Arctic woodland, and the White-tailed Ptarmigan of the Rocky Mountains in North America.
The snow-white plumage of this male Rock Ptarmigan is better suited for wintery conditions.
- Pink-footed Goose – Great in number, small in range
While geese often get overlooked in these sort of ranking lists, Iceland is home to a rather special species that only breeds in a select few places. The entire world population of Pink-footed Goose is split between 4 breeding populations: those in Iceland and southern Greenland (wintering in Great Britain) and those of Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya, Russia (wintering in Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands). The latter site has only recently been established by birds from the Svalbard population, and studies have shown it to be a big step in our understanding of cultural transmission and social learning among migratory birds. The largest breeding colony of Pink-footed Geese is found in Iceland. Located in the wetland oasis of Thjorsarver near the island’s center, an estimated 12 000 pairs breed here, with smaller colonies found elsewhere on the island.
One such area is the braided river valley south of the town of Varmahlid. This was where I found good number of Pink-footed Geese on my trip, with many pairs escorting large creches of goslings down to the river. Unlike the ubiquitous Greylag Geese found across Iceland, the Pink-footed Geese were shyer and more skittish, never allowing for a close approach. By the end of summer, these geese will be accompanying their young on the long journey to Great Britain, where they winter en masse. Although there are only a few populations of Pink-footed Geese, their numbers have increased greatly in the last 50 years, with the wintering population in the UK rising by 250,000 individuals in that time.
Pink-footed Geese are prone to vagrancy, and have turned up in places like Canada and the Azores.
- Gyrfalcon – The vanishing national treasure
It seems fitting to conclude this list with the “unofficial” national bird of Iceland: the magnificent Gyrfalcon. The largest of the falcons and a glorious predator, the Gyrfalcon is yet another Arctic species that calls the moors and tundra its home. Unlike their more famous cousin, the Peregrine Falcon, these brutish falcons are built more for strength than speed. They are substantially larger than Peregrines, with large females reaching over two kilograms. The also prefer horizontal pursuits to the dramatic vertical dives of the Peregrine, and are therefore partial to hunting mammals as well as birds. Their favored prey items seem to be Rock and Willow Ptarmigans, although they have been recorded bringing down birds as hefty as a Canada Goose! They will also go for small passerines like Redpolls, while favored mammal prey include Arctic Ground Squirrels and Arctic Hares. Aside from their size, power and hunting prowess, the Gyrfalcon is a remarkably variable bird in its coloration. Grey morphs tend to be more regular, while the dazzling white morphs are less common and mostly found in Greenland and eastern Canada.
Sadly, while this esteemed bird of prey used to be locally common in Iceland, the resident population has undergone a sharp decline in the last 5 years, decreasing by 45% since 2019. This has been attributed avian flu affecting the Rock Ptarmigan population (their main food source), as well as a severe snowstorm in 2024 disrupting their breeding efforts. This unfortunately means that Gyrfalcons are not easy to target on our Iceland birding tours, but the rocky spires around Lake Myvatn and the cliffs of Jokulsargljufur are among the best places to search for them.
The rare Gyrfalcon has long been associated with falconry and royalty in many northern cultures.
Now that you have read about some of the tantalizing birds on offer in Iceland, you may be interested in paying a visit to the land of fire and ice. Look no further than our Iceland Birding Tour where we explore the extensive networks of fjords and tundra for these and many more incredible bird species. I have also included a list below of all the bird species found in Iceland (excluding vagrants), all of which are possible on our tour. Don’t miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime to witness the high Arctic in all its avian glory! Whether you’re looking for the perfect puffin photo or simply just enjoy cold climes and an abundance of birds, Iceland is a destination you have to visit!
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
| Ducks, Geese, Swans (Anatidae) | |
| Brant Goose | Branta bernicla |
| Barnacle Goose | Branta leucopsis |
| Greylag Goose | Anser anser |
| Pink-footed Goose | Anser brachyrhynchus |
| Whooper Swan | Cygnus cygnus |
| Common Shelduck | Tadorna tadorna |
| Northern Shoveler | Spatula clypeata |
| Gadwall | Mareca strepera |
| Eurasian Wigeon | Mareca penelope |
| Mallard | Anas platyrhynchos |
| Northern Pintail | Anas acuta |
| Eurasian Teal | Anas crecca |
| Tufted Duck | Aythya fuligula |
| Greater Scaup | Aythya marila |
| King Eider | Somateria spectabilis |
| Common Eider | Somateria mollissima |
| Harlequin Duck | Histrionicus histrionicus |
| Common Scoter | Melanitta nigra |
| Long-tailed Duck – VU | Clangula hyemalis |
| Common Goldeneye | Bucephala clangula |
| Barrow’s Goldeneye | Bucephala islandica |
| Common Merganser | Mergus merganser |
| Red-breasted Merganser | Mergus serrator |
| Pheasants & Allies (Phasianidae) | |
| Rock Ptarmigan | Lagopus muta |
| Pigeons, Doves (Columbidae) | |
| Rock Dove (Introduced) | Columba livia |
| Common Wood Pigeon | Columba palumbus |
| Grebes (Podicipedidae) | |
| Horned Grebe | Podiceps auritus |
| Oystercatchers (Haematopodidae) | |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | Haematopus ostralegus |
| Plovers (Charadriidae) | |
| European Golden Plover | Pluvialis apricaria |
| Common Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula |
| Sandpipers, Snipes (Scolopacidae) | |
| Eurasian Whimbrel | Numenius phaeopus |
| Eurasian Curlew | Numenius arquata |
| Black-tailed Godwit | Limosa limosa |
| Eurasian Woodcock | Scolopax rusticola |
| Common Snipe | Gallinago gallinago |
| Red Phalarope | Phalaropus fulicarius |
| Red-necked Phalarope | Phalaropus lobatus |
| Common Redshank | Tringa totanus |
| Ruddy Turnstone | Arenaria interpres |
| Red Knot | Calidris canutus |
| Sanderling | Calidris alba |
| Dunlin | Calidris alpina |
| Purple Sandpiper | Calidris maritima |
| Gulls, Terns, Skimmers (Laridae) | |
| Arctic Tern | Sterna paradisaea |
| Black-legged Kittiwake – VU | Rissa tridactyla |
| Black-headed Gull | Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
| Common Gull | Larus canus |
| European Herring Gull | Larus argentatus |
| Great Black-backed Gull | Larus marinus |
| Glaucous Gull | Larus hyperboreus |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | Larus fuscus |
| Iceland Gull | Larus glaucoides |
| Skuas (Stercorariidae) | |
| Parasitic Jaeger | Stercorarius parasiticus |
| Great Skua | Stercorarius skua |
| Auks (Alcidae) | |
| Atlantic Puffin – VU | Fratercula arctica |
| Black Guillemot | Cepphus grylle |
| Razorbill | Alca torda |
| Thick-billed Murre | Uria lomvia |
| Common Murre | Uria aalge |
| Loons (Gaviidae) | |
| Red-throated Loon | Gavia stellata |
| Common Loon | Gavia immer |
| Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels (Procellariidae) | |
| Northern Fulmar | Fulmarus glacialis |
| Manx Shearwater | Puffinus puffinus |
| Gannets, Boobies (Sulidae) | |
| Northern Gannet | Morus bassanus |
| Cormorants, Shags (Phalacrocoracidae) | |
| Great Cormorant | Phalacrocorax carbo |
| European Shag | Gulosus aristotelis |
| Herons, Bitterns (Ardeidae) | |
| Grey Heron | Ardea cinerea |
| Kites, Hawks, Eagles (Accipitridae) | |
| White-tailed Eagle | Haliaeetus albicilla |
| Owls (Strigidae) | |
| Short-eared Owl | Asio flammeus |
| Caracaras, Falcons (Falconidae) | |
| Merlin | Falco columbarius |
| Gyrfalcon | Falco rusticolus |
| Crows, Jays (Corvidae) | |
| Northern Raven | Corvus corax |
| Goldcrests, Kinglets (Regulidae) | |
| Goldcrest | Regulus regulus |
| Wrens (Troglodytidae) | |
| Eurasian Wren | Troglodytes troglodytes |
| Starlings, Rhabdornises (Sturnidae) | |
| Common Starling | Sturnus vulgaris |
| Thrushes (Turdidae) | |
| Redwing | Turdus iliacus |
| Common Blackbird | Turdus merula |
| Chats, Old World Flycatchers (Muscicapidae) | |
| Northern Wheatear | Oenanthe oenanthe |
| Wagtails, Pipits (Motacillidae) | |
| White Wagtail | Motacilla alba |
| Meadow Pipit | Anthus pratensis |
| Finches, Euphonias (Fringillidae) | |
| Redpoll | Acanthis flammea |
| Red Crossbill | Loxia curvirostra |
| Longspurs, Snow Buntings (Calcariidae) | |
| Snow Bunting | Plectrophenax nivalis |
