Náttúrufræðingurinn - 1995, Qupperneq 33

SUMMARY
RaRE AND VAGRANT BIRDS IN ICELAND:
Cuckoos*
The paper deals with three species of Cuckoos
recorded in Iceland. General information is
given about each species, followed by a list of
all known records to end of 1992.
The following data are listed: locality
(place, district, county), date or time interval,
number of birds (if more than one), sex (karlf.
= male, kvenf. = female) and age (ad., imm.,
ársgamall = one year old) if known, in paren-
theses, and location of specimen, name of ob-
server or reference if the record has been pub-
lished previously. For some records additional
information is given. The majority of the
specimens are preserved at the Icelandic Mu-
seum of Natural History (IMNH). These are
designated by RM (Reykjavík Museum) and a
catalogue number (e.g. RM3999). Two speci-
mens are preserved at the Natural History Mu-
seum in Vestmannaeyjar (Náttúrugripasafn
Vestmannaeyja), one at a local school and two
in private coilections (einkasafn).
* Rare and vagrant birds in Iceland. Re-
port 12: Icelandic Museum of Natural His-
tory.
The species dealt with are:
1. Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. An infrequent
visitor with 29 records involving 31 indi-
viduals. The records range from April to
September with peak numbers in May-
early June. Three of four dated records
from late summer or autumn are juve-
niles. Fig. 2 shows the times of occur-
rence. The records are widely distributed
in SW, S, SE, E and NE Iceland, as seen in
Fig. 3. Two records are of the rufous
morph, a juvenile from late August 1958
(record no. 7) and a female found dead in
April 1987 (record no. 25). All other
specimens in the IMNH are of the grey
morph.
2. Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythroph-
thalmus. Two records. The first bird was
found dead in autumn or early winter
1935 in SW Iceland. The second record is
from October 1982 in SE Iceland.
3. Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus ameri-
canus. Three records. The first bird was
found long dead in January 1954. The
other two birds were found dead in Octo-
ber 1954 and 1987, respectively. The
records are from SE, S, and SW Iceland.
PÓSTFANG HÖFUNDAR/AuTHOR'S ADDRESS
Gaukur Hjartarson
Háagerði 9
IS-640 HÚSAVÍK
263