Through decades birdwatchers have meticulously observed and recorded the birds in Skagen and gathered information on phenology, records etc. So far no less than 388 species have been recorded in the Skagen area. See the list here: Skagen Bird List
Preface
The Skagen Bird List comprises the bird species and subspecies recorded within the geographical area that formerly constituted Skagen Municipality (see map below).
The list follows the new international AviList regarding taxonomy, systematics, Latin and English names. The Danish names follow the recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee in Birdlife Denmark.
All known and well-documented records of species and subspecies observed until December 2025 are included. For taxon that are listed by the Danish Rarities Committee, only those, for which accepted records from the area exist, have been included.
Species are assigned to the categories used in the Danish List, which was last updated in September 2025 (Olsen, K. & Danish Rarities Committee 2025. The Danish List: A Checklist of the Birds of Denmark. The 56th report from the Danish Rarities Committee. – Dansk Orn. Foren. Tidsskr. 119: 105-112).
Category A: Species and subspecies documented as occurring spontaneously at least once since 1950.
Category B: Species and subspecies documented as occurring spontaneously at least once before 1950.
Category C: Species and subspecies derived from released or escaped individuals that have established a free-living, self-sustaining population in Denmark or elsewhere.
Category D: Species and subspecies that meet the criteria for category A or B, except that the spontaneity of their occurrence cannot be confirmed.
Category E: Species and subspecies considered to have escaped from captivity.
The Skagen Bird List consists of the species and subspecies in categories A, B and C. Subspecies are marked with 0 in the list and are not counted separately in the total number of species.
As of 31 December 2025, the list contains a total of 388 species with 378 species in category A, 2 species in category B, and 8 species in category C. In addition, there is 1 species in category D and at least 22 species in category E, which are not included in the overall species total.
Notes on the list:
The Cory's Shearwater/Scopolis Shearwater pair is included in category A as unidentified to species and does not contribute to the species total.
Category E should not be regarded as complete, as several category A species may also have records that fall within category E (for example Chaffinch, Grey Partridge and others) but are omitted here. Category E also contains records of a few species that have not been submitted to the Danish Rarity Committee.
Subspecies are mentioned for those species where multiple subspecies have been recorded. For Black Guillemot, Iceland Gull, Mediterranean Shearwater, Willow Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch and Cinereous Bunting only one subspecies of each has been documented, but they are mentioned nonetheless to clarify which ones.
The Skagen Bird List is compiled and edited by Simon S. Christiansen, Oluf Lou, Lisa Vergin and Knud Pedersen, December 2025.
Birds at Skagen - An overview
Local birder Erik Christophersen has followed the bird observations in Skagen for many years and maintains an historical overview on his website with records, numbers and phenology for the species observed in the area. Click here to check out the interesting overviews. Erik also has a photo page that is worth to check out.
