Latrabjarg

Látrabjarg (65.501°N x 24.529°W) is a 14 km long cliff, and up to 444 m high, located in the Westfjords region and is considered to be the largest seabird cliff in Europe. The western tip of Látrabjarg, known as Bjargtangar, is the westernmost point of Iceland.

As part of the SEATRACK project, GLS were first deployed on common and Brünnich’s guillemots in Látrabjarg in 2017. However, GLS deployments on these two species started as early as 2013 as a part of another initiative, on including razorbills as well (Linnebjerg et al. 2018). Those data have been made available to SEATRACK.

Látrabjarg is identified as an important bird area by Birdlife International. Seabirds own the cliff which holds the world’s largest Razorbill colony (161.000 pairs). Other cliff-nesting species are also abundant there; common guillemot (226.000 pairs); Brünnich’s guillemot (118.000 pairs); northern fulmar (100.000 pairs); Atlantic puffin (50.000 pairs); kittiwake (32.000 pairs); and 124 pairs of European shag. The population estimates are from 2000 (puffins, by Ólafur Einarsson), 2006-2007 (shag by Garðarsson et al. 2009, alcids by Garðarsson et al. 2019 and kittiwakes by Garðarsson et al. 2013) and 2009 (fulmars by Garðarsson et al. 2019). Látrabjarg is part of the nationwide Cliff Breeding Seabirds Monitoring Programme, CLIFFSEA, since 2009.