Birds of Greenland

List of Common Birds Found in Greenland

Native Birds

• American Golden Plover
• American Wigeon
• Arctic Skua
• Arctic Tern
• Atlantic Puffin
• Barnacle Goose
• Barrow’s Goldeneye
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Black-bellied Plover
• Black Guillemot
• Black-headed Gull
• Black-legged Kittiwake
• Black-necked Grebe
• Black Scoter
• Brant 
• Brünnich’s Guillemot
• Common Eider
• Common Goldeneye
• Common Guillemot
• Common Merganser
• Common Pochard
• Common Raven
• Common Redpoll
• Common Ringed Plover
• Common Scoter
• Common Snipe
• Common Tern
• Dunlin
• Eurasian Teal
• Eurasian Wigeon
• Glaucous Gull
• Great Black-backed Gull
• Greater Scaup
• Great Northern Diver
• Great Skua
• Green-winged Teal
• Gyrfalcon
• Harlequin Duck
• Hooded Merganser
• Horned Grebe
• Iceland Gull
• Ivory Gull
• King Eider
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Lesser Scaup
• Little Auk
• Little Stint
• Long-tailed Duck
• Long-tailed Jaeger
• Mallard
• Northern Fulmar
• Northern Gannet
• Northern Pintail
• Northern Raven
• Northern Shoveler
• Northern Wheatear
• Parasitic Jaeger
• Peregrine Falcon
• Pink-footed Goose
• Pomarine Skua
• Purple Sandpiper
• Razorbill
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Red Knot
• Red-necked Grebe
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Red-throated Diver
• Red-throated Loon
• Red-throated Pipit
• Redwing
• Rock Pipit
• Rock Ptarmigan
• Ruff
• Sabine’s Gull
• Sanderling
• Short-eared Owl
• Smew
• Snow Bunting
• Snowy Owl
• Steller’s Eider
• Steller’s Eider
• Temminck’s Stint
• Thick-billed Murre
• Tufted Duck
• Velvet Scoter
• Whimbrel
• White-tailed Eagle
• White Wagtail
• White-winged Scoter
• Willow Ptarmigan
• Wilson’s Snipe
• Yellow-billed Loon

Non-native Birds

• Chimney Swift
• Common Cuckoo
• Common Gallinule
• Common Nighthawk
• Eared Grebe
• Emperor Goose
• Eurasian Oystercatcher
• Graylag Goose
• South Polar Skua
• Tundra Swan
• Virginia Rail
• Water Rail

Greenland offers fantastic birding opportunities, especially during the breeding season when numerous migratory species arrive. Some of the best birding sites in the country include Zackenberg Research Station, also known as Northeast Greenland National Park, Nuuk Fjord, and Disko Island. The breeding season is a prime time to experience the avifauna of the nation. Typically starting in late May and extending through June and early July, one can spot nesting seabirds, waterfowl, and shorebirds in various locations.