Birds of Iran

List of Common Birds Found in Iran

Native Birds

• Barn Swallow
• Basra Reed Warbler
• Black Francolin
• Black-headed Bunting
• Black-headed Penduline Tit
• Black Kite
• Caspian Gull
• Caspian Snowcock
• Caspian Tit
• Cinereous Bunting
• Common Chaffinch
• Common Chiffchaff
• Common Hoopoe 
• Common Kingfisher
• Common Myna
• Common Nightingale
• Common Redstart
• Common Rosefinch
• Common Stonechat
• Corn Bunting
• Crested Lark
• Dalmatian Pelican
• Desert Wheatear
• Eastern Imperial Eagle
• Eastern Rock Nuthatch
• Eurasian Blackbird
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• Eurasian Coot
• Eurasian Crag Martin
• Eurasian Hoopoe
• Eurasian Jay
• Eurasian Kestrel
• Eurasian Magpie
• Eurasian Skylark
• Eurasian Spoonbill
• Eurasian Wryneck
• European Bee-eater
• European Goldfinch
• European Roller
• European Serin
• Finsch’s Wheatear
• Fire-Fronted Serin
• Graceful Prinia
• Great Tit
• Green Sandpiper
• Grey Heron
• Grey Hypocolius
• Hooded Crow
• House Sparrow
• Imperial Eagle
• Indian Roller
• Iranian Bulbul
• Iranian Grosbeak
• Iranian Ground Jay
• Iranian Woodpecker
• Isabelline Wheatear
• Laughing Dove
• Lesser Kestrel
• Lesser Whitethroat
• Little Egret
• Little Owl
• Long-eared Owl
• Long-legged Buzzard
• Mallard
• Menetries’s Warbler
• Northern Bald Ibis
• Northern Wheatear
• Ortolan Bunting
• Pale Rock Sparrow
• Persian Ground Jay
• Persian Magpie
• Persian Nuthatch
• Persian Shearwater
• Pied Avocet
• Pleske’s Ground Jay
• Radde’s Accentor
• Red-backed Shrike
• Red-tailed Wheatear
• Red-wattled Lapwing
• Rock Bunting
• Rock Sparrow
• Saxaul Sparrow
• Smew
• Socotra Cormorant
• Steppe Eagle
• Streaked Scrub Warbler
• Syrian Serin
• Syrian Woodpecker
• Tawny Pipit
• Western Marsh Harrier
• Western Rock Nuthatch
• Western Yellow Wagtail
• White-eared Bulbul
• White Stork
• White-tailed Lapwing
• White-throated Dipper
• White-throated Robin
• White Wagtail
• Yellow-headed Wheatear
• Yellow-vented Bulbul

Non-native Birds

• Alexandrine Parakeet
• Arctic Loon
• Barnacle Goose
• Brown Noddy
• Brown Skua
• Common Scoter
• Demoiselle Crane
• Far Eastern Curlew
• Great Snipe
• Great Spotted Cuckoo
• Herring Gull
• Indian Skimmer
• Pallas’s Sandgrouse
• Pied Cuckoo
• Red Phalarope
• Red-vented Bulbul
• Rose-ringed Parakeet
• Ruddy Duck
• Small Buttonquail
• Sociable Lapwing
• Solitary Snipe
• Sykes’s Nightjar

Some of Iran’s best places to go birdwatching include Miankaleh Wildlife Sanctuary, Lake Urmia, and Golestan National Park. The last one is notable as it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The peak season for birding in Iran generally falls within the spring and autumn months when migratory birds pass through or stop there.