Birding Iceland

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Birding Iceland
Last update... 9 January 2010

Preparing a trip to Iceland? Or have already been here?

To date, 376 species of birds have been recorded in Iceland which is a remarkable feat when one considers that just 75 (or 20% of them) are regular breeders. Vagrants therefore make up the majority of the Icelandic List.
You can view the official list of Iceland's Birds (updated 14.12.2009) with details about their occurence here. There you can also see which species are considered by the Icelandic Rarities Committee (marked with "F"). If you have made observations of these "rare birds", and not yet reported them to the IRC (or will see some in the future) then here is a recording form for the IRC (pdf file) which you can then send to Yann Kolbeinsson - yannk@hi.is

Spjald 3.06 - forrit til að skrá fuglaathuganir

Þeir sem eru með Spjald fyrir skulu gera eftirfarandi:
Náið í uppfærslu hér Sp306u.zip og setjið skrána á vinnusvæðið "c:\spjald".
Opnið Sp306u.zip með WinZip, eða öðru sambærilegu forriti, og setjið þær 6 skrár sem í henni eru (með extract) á vinnusvæðið "c:\spjald" (þar sem Spjald.exe er geymt). Leyfið að skrifað sé yfir fyrri skrár (overwrite). Þetta er nýtt Spjald.exe, ný hjálparskrá, ný tegundaskrá (og afrit að þeirri gömlu), síðasta staðarskrá og DJPEG.exe.

Þeir sem EKKI eru með Spjald fyrir skulu gera eftirfarandi:
Náið í uppfærslu hér Sp306.zip og geymið á tímabundnu vinnusvæði.
Opnið skrána Sp306.zip með WinZip og klikkið á Setup.exe eða takkann "Install". Svarið síðan öllum spurningum játandi eftir það: "OK", "Áfram", "Áfram", "Áfram", "Í lagi" og "OK". Keyrið síðan upp forritið Spjald ... og hefjið skráningu fuglaathugana.

Nýjungar í útgáfu 3.06: – (október 2009)
1) Notar nýja SPJTEG-skrá. Getur einnig notað þá gömlu.
2) Skráin SPJTEG.dbf uppfærð með nýrri uppröðun (skv lista “British Birds”) og nýjum latneskum heitum.
3) Hægt er að raða athuganaskrá eftir V-Pal.-númerum (t.d. fyrir útprentun).

Nýjungar í útgáfu 3.05: – (júlí 2009)
1) Nú er hægt að taka inn stórar JPG-myndir (allt að 700 Mb óþjappaðar) og 12 Mb BMP-myndir.
2) Gert er ráð fyrir litaprentara í byrjun.
3) Bandstrik sett á milli tegundar og undirtegundar í Euring-númeri.
4) Hjálparskrá breytt nokkuð.

Birding Diary

An all new section has been launched, presenting regular Icelandic birding diaries written by Edward B. Rickson. This is regularly updated so be sure to visit regularly and push the refresh button !
Click here to enter.

		Mallard Anas platyrhynchos at Reykjavík, SW-Iceland on 19 October 2000 © Yann Kolbeinsson	Goosanders Mergus merganser at Lake Mývatn, NE-Iceland on 21 June 2001 © Yann Kolbeinsson	Red-necked Phalaropes Phalaropus lobatus at Lake Mývatn, NE-Iceland in May 1996 © Yann Kolbeinsson

Portfolios

A year at Lake Mývatn (NE-Iceland) - 37 photos (click the banner to enter or here ).
All photos by Yann Kolbeinsson ©

Icelandic migrants

Read about migrant arrivals in Iceland during spring 2009 here, and compare the first dates with arrivals since 1998.

Status of rare birds in Iceland

Vagrants make up most of the Icelandic List (80%), many of these being really common birds in the neighbouring countries (e.g. Scandinavia) and others being "real" vagrants from both N-America and Europe/Asia/South Atlantic. By clicking on the species name below you can view their status in Iceland, that is where and when they are found in Iceland. These graphs & maps have been made/reviewed by Gunnlaugur Pétursson & Yann Kolbeinsson.
The list below now includes over 250 species (in taxonomic order), or all species of which less than 200 individuals have been recorded in Iceland till the end of 2000, plus several other more common species.
A good number of maps have been updated to include records accepted by the Icelandic Rarities Committee up to and including the year 2003.

Swans to Ducks