Birding in Iceland in July-Aug 2023 (1 Viewer)

[SandhillCrane02]

Hello all! I hope this is the right place to post this
Basically, I'm gonna be going on a 9 day trip to Iceland this summer (from July 31 to August 8) as part of a sustainable energy and environmental science program my university partners with. A lot of the trip will be spent on the educational aspect and not my own free time to do whatever I want, so I'd like to ask a bit in advance so I can really keep my eyes peeled-- what can I expect to see? Where should I be paying attention most? I downloaded the Iceland birds pack on Merlin and just a cursory glance at it shows there's definitely a lot of waterfowl, most of which I've never seen in my life. Does anyone who's been to Iceland before know where birds tend to be found?

The main thing I want to see are Puffins, but I'm pretty sure based on what my friend who's done the trip before said, the group will specifically be going to see them on the cliffs.

 

[cloudarms]

Hey! I'm going to Iceland in a couple weeks, and have been skimming reports on bird to see what I'm most likely to see, and where. From what I'm seeing the Snaefellsnes peninsula is a an active area. My focus is mostly around Reykjavik and the S/SE part of the country because of the possible road closures due to winter weather, but you shouldn't have to contend with much of that in the summer! Even still, I'll be sure to report back with my findings

 

[SandhillCrane02]

Hey! I'm going to Iceland in a couple weeks, and have been skimming reports on bird to see what I'm most likely to see, and where. From what I'm seeing the Snaefellsnes peninsula is a an active area. My focus is mostly around Reykjavik and the S/SE part of the country because of the possible road closures due to winter weather, but you shouldn't have to contend with much of that in the summer! Even still, I'll be sure to report back with my findings

Awesome I would love to hear about it! As luck would have it, the place where I'll be taking the classes is in Reykjavik so there should be the same species around there

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

User 'Edward' lives in Iceland and is a font of knowledge on these things. If he doesn't see this you could message him.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Ebird is used quite a lot in Iceland, so checking that (both for sites and particular species) should help to give an idea of what's possible and where.

 

[SandhillCrane02]

User 'Edward' lives in Iceland and is a font of knowledge on these things. If he doesn't see this you could message him.

I'll definitely have to ask him

 

[Edward]

As Andrew says, eBird is widely used in Iceland and is the best tool by far for seeing what birds are here and where they are. Although August is past the prime period and southbound migration has begun, there are still plenty of birds all over the place. Here are the eBird bar charts for Iceland https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2023&bmo=1&emo=12&r=IS

 

[SandhillCrane02]

As Andrew says, eBird is widely used in Iceland and is the best tool by far for seeing what birds are here and where they are. Although August is past the prime period and southbound migration has begun, there are still plenty of birds all over the place. Here are the eBird bar charts for Iceland https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2023&bmo=1&emo=12&r=IS

Awesome, thanks!