Abstract: Based on original literature reports covering the period 1860–1969, details of 362 records of 102 bird species considered rare in Iran are presented. This fills a gap in knowledge of Iran’s birds from a period between research by Gmelin and Hablizl in the 1770s (reviewed by Mlikovsky 2008) and an overview of the observations of rare birds in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s (presented by Scott 2008). Attention is drawn to two new species for Iran (Eastern Marsh Harrier Circus spilonotus and Blue Whistling Thrush Myophonus caeruleus). Published details validate the records of Light-bellied Brent Goose Branta hrota, Upland Buzzard Buteo hemilasius, Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris, and Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus saturatus, formerly considered as of dubious occurrence in Iran. Information on six species (Yellow-breasted Tit Cyanistes cyanus flavipectus, Falcated Duck Anas falcata, Indian Nightjar Caprimulgus asiaticus, Güldenstädt’s Redstart Phoenicurus erythrogaster, Cirl Bunting Emberiza cirlus and Eurasian Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes) was considered insufficient or unreliable and the occurrence of these species in Iran has been rejected. We recommend that these species be omitted from the last revised checklist of the birds of Iran (Scott & Adhami 2006). Accordingly, the updated checklist of the birds of Iran reaches 522 species (including five recently added species, namely Sooty Shearwater Puffinus gravis, Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis, Rednecked Stint Calidris ruficollis, Namaqua Dove Oena capensis and Red-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer).

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