Wildlife of Iceland Through My Lens

In May 2026, my wife and I did our first full loop of the Iceland Ring Road, 9 days and 2,258 km around the island. That post covers the itinerary, the stops and the practical tips. This one is just about the animals we saw along the way.

Iceland is not a wildlife destination like Africa or Alaska. The landscapes are the main attraction, and there are not many wild land animals on the island. But between the puffins in the Eastfjords, the wild reindeer, and the horses and sheep in every pasture, there was always something to look at. In total, there are 20 different animals in this post: 16 birds and 4 mammals.

Here I will try to collect my photos of the wildlife we saw along the way, all taken with my Canon EOS R7. They are grouped by type, starting with the birds.

Here they are:

Birds

Puffins were the animal we wanted to see the most in Iceland, and May is a good time for them, since they come back to land to breed. But I saw different birds throughout the whole trip, from the ones near Loa’s Nest, our guesthouse in Hella, to the ones flying around the steep cliffs, waterfalls and moss-covered walls of Múlagljúfur Canyon. Near Mývatn, I even went to a spot on the lake to try to photograph birds while my wife stayed at the hotel.

Atlantic puffin

On our third day, at Kirkjufjara, next to Dyrhólaey, we saw one puffin, but even with a big zoom lens I could not capture it. Unnur, one of the owners of Loa’s Nest, where we stayed in Hella, had shared a place where we were more likely to see them: Hafnarhólmi, about a one-hour drive from Egilsstaðir.

Since we had not really seen puffins until then, we decided on a 2-hour detour from our original plans, and it was a completely different experience. There were hundreds of puffins on a small hill, and we could spend a good amount of time enjoying them. It was really fun to see how they fly, land and interact with each other. We took more than 500 photos of them, and it was one of the best wildlife experiences of the trip. Seeing just one at Kirkjufjara and then finding so many at Hafnarhólmi made it even better. Around 60% of the world’s Atlantic puffins breed in Iceland. They usually mate for life, and the couples meet again at the same burrow every spring.

Arctic tern

Nice birds flying around the icebergs in Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, which is close to Diamond Beach. Arctic terns have the longest migration of any animal, around 70,000 km a year between the Arctic and Antarctica. In Iceland, they are also known for dive-bombing anyone who walks too close to their nests.

Rock ptarmigan

These are really beautiful birds. We saw a few during the trip, close to Vík and in other places. They change plumage with the seasons, white in winter and mottled brown in summer, to blend in with the landscape.

Barrow’s goldeneye

I read that Lake Mývatn was good for bird watching, so I went to look for some birds around the lake. I saw this one and a few others, which was nice. Iceland is the only place in Europe where Barrow’s goldeneyes breed, mostly around Mývatn and the Laxá River.

Harlequin duck

These were also around Lake Mývatn, and there were even some photographers with big professional lenses. Iceland is also the only place in Europe where harlequin ducks breed, and they like fast-flowing rivers like the Laxá.

Swan

On our first day, we strolled around Lake Tjörnin in downtown Reykjavík, where we saw swans and other birds, and even a guy “talking” to a swan. Later, I realized they were everywhere in Iceland. We kept seeing swans in many places throughout the country. Most of Iceland’s whooper swans fly to Britain and Ireland for the winter, but a small number stay, including a flock at Tjörnin.

Northern fulmar

There were quite a few of these flying in Múlagljúfur Canyon, which is a beautiful place to visit. It is one of the nicest canyons we have ever seen. Fulmars are related to albatrosses, and they defend themselves by spitting a foul-smelling stomach oil at predators.

Common eider

On the sea, on the way to the Eastfjords. Icelandic farmers collect eiderdown by hand from the nests after the ducklings leave, and Iceland produces most of the world’s supply.

Eurasian oystercatcher

This Eurasian oystercatcher was nesting close to our guesthouse, Loa’s Nest, and it was really interesting to see it protecting its nest. There were three eggs. Despite the name, oystercatchers eat mostly mussels and worms, not oysters.

Common redshank

Also close to the Loa’s Nest guesthouse. It was alone and hard to spot. Redshanks are nicknamed the “sentinels of the marshes” because of their loud alarm calls.

Greylag geese

We saw many geese around the country, together with farms with sheep and lambs, including on the way to Stuðlagil Canyon, in the east. This photo is from near Vík.

Waking up at Lækjaborgir Guesthouse, a bit outside Vík, was really nice, as it was in the countryside with a beautiful view. It was also one of the few days with some sun. Greylag geese are the wild ancestor of most domestic geese.

Pink-footed goose

They were around Stuðlagil Canyon, and it looked like they were nesting there. Most of the pink-footed geese that breed in Iceland spend the winter in Britain.

European golden plover

It was quite hard to see them as they were camouflaged in the dry grass of Stuðlagil Canyon. Icelanders see the arrival of the golden plover as the first sign of spring, and the news even reports when the first one is spotted each year.

Common snipe

Also at Stuðlagil Canyon. In their display flight, snipes make a “drumming” sound with their tail feathers, not their voice.

Parasitic jaeger

There were quite a few birds at Jökulsárlón, and it was nice. There were even some seals. Parasitic jaegers chase terns and puffins in the air until they drop their food, and then steal it.

White wagtail

Also at Jökulsárlón. White wagtails spend the winter in West Africa and fly back to Iceland in the spring.

Wild mammals

Iceland has very few wild land mammals, so these were special.

Reindeer

On day 5, driving from Höfn into the Eastfjords, we saw lots of wild reindeer along the road. They were beautiful and different from the ones we see in Canada, and the drive through the east was the best opportunity to spot them. Reindeer are not native to Iceland. They were brought from Norway in the late 1700s, and the herd in the east is the only one that survived, which is why that is the only region where you can see them.

Harbor seal

At Jökulsárlón, the glacier lagoon next to Diamond Beach, the icebergs floating on the other side of the bridge were really nice to see. There were birds flying around them, and I was also able to spot some harbor seals while looking across the water. They were quite far, so we could not get a close look at them. Harbor seals are listed as endangered in Iceland, and the population is about 70% smaller than it was in 1980.

Farm animals

They are not wild, but they are everywhere, and they are part of the landscape. You get views with cliffs on one side, golden grass everywhere, sheep and horses in pastures, and the sea on the other side.

Icelandic horse

We saw horses on farms all around the island, starting on the way to Loa’s Nest, our guesthouse in Hella, on day two. Iceland has not allowed horses to be imported for more than a thousand years, so the breed is very pure, and a horse that leaves the country can never come back. They also have an extra gait called the tölt, which is so smooth that riders show it off by carrying a glass of beer without spilling it.

Icelandic sheep

There were sheep around Skógafoss, which made the waterfall look even better, and a sheep farm next to Lækjaborgir Guesthouse, where we stayed on day three. At Stuðlagil Canyon, we stopped to look at some lambs with their mothers. It was nice to see them together, a small but memorable moment on a day that also included hiking through the canyon. In the summer, around 800,000 sheep roam free in the mountains, and every September farmers round them up and sort them back to their farms in a tradition called réttir. That is why we kept seeing them along the roads.

We also ate a lot of lamb during the trip. The best was the lamb steak at Restaurant Kanslarinn, on day two.

The ones we missed

The Arctic fox is the only land mammal native to Iceland, but we never found one. We also did not do a whale-watching tour. From the Geosea baths in Húsavík, known as the whale-watching capital of Iceland, we could see the boats out in the bay and even signs of a whale from far away, but that was it. I guess that gives us two good reasons to go back.

If you’d like to see more photos from this trip, they are available in my Iceland collection on Adobe Stock. I also wrote about why I started selling my photos on stock websites.

If you enjoyed this one, I also keep galleries of the wildlife of British Columbia and the wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania.

Cheers.