Iceland's wildlife diversity is poor. Sheep, horses, whales, seals, rodents… The largest predator is the Arctic fox. The opposite is true for birds. Lying on a migratory route, the island boasts several hundred species. Of course, to see most of them, you'd have to go out and explore. But some species are literally everywhere.
As with any seashore, there are, first and foremost, a wide variety of gulls. Kittiwakes, great black-backed gulls, common gulls, and all sorts of other gulls are found here in abundance.
Fulmars. Incidentally, fulmars aren't technically gulls. They belong to the petrel family.
From a distance, resembling the silhouette of pterodactyls, grey petrels circle in the air for long periods.
Oystercatchers are a common sight in Iceland. Even the slightest disturbance sends them circling above you with hooting cries. And if you get too close to their nests, they'll land nearby and feign woundedness, luring away any potential threats.
Snipes rummage through the rotting seaweed along the banks.
Sea sandpipers.
Herbalist.
Red-necked Phalarope.
Eiders are found in abundance.
Guillemots and razorbills nest on the rocks.
And in the grass there are thousands of Arctic terns, which are quite aggressive and are not afraid of either people or cars.
Red-throated loons hatch their chicks in quiet backwaters.
Neighbouring whooper swans.
But the true star of this feathered kingdom is a small black-and-white bird with a sad look and a large red beak. The symbol of Iceland is the Atlantic puffin.
Puffins can be seen in many places along the Icelandic coast. The most accessible are the Dyrhólaey cliffs on the south coast, a small cape on the shore of Borgarfjörður near the village of Bakkagerði, and the Látrabjarg cliffs in the Westfjords.
Dead ends nest in burrows. The bird is a true mining engineer; the length of its burrows can reach several meters. In the habitat of a dead end colony, the ground can be riddled with entire networks of tunnels.
Puffins gather on the shore in the evenings; during the day they feed in the sea.
Puffins feed on small fish. The structure of their beak allows them to hunt without releasing their prey. They use their tongue to push the fish deeper into their beak and press them against the spines on their upper jaw.
A puffin is rarely seen with only one prey item.
Usually, a whole bunch of fish, crustaceans or mollusks hangs from both sides of the beak.
Puffins acquire their vibrant coloring in the spring at the start of the breeding season. In the fall, after molting, the red bill turns gray, and the triangles around the eyes that give the bird a sad look disappear.
But the puffin in its winter plumage is very rarely seen; in the autumn the bird migrates to the sea and does not appear on land until the next breeding season.
Source: travel.ru