A daily record.
Featuring photos of wild birds and nature, mainly from Okinawa Main Island and Ishigaki Island

A Eurasian Hoopoe resting in a Ficus microcarpa tree.

It was being chased by crows from time to time.

Once it settled down a little it came to the ground to look for food. It appears to have just arrived on migration.

It then flew out over the sea.

Ishigaki Island is extremely hot. So hot that the Eurasian Hoopoe had its bill open.

Foraging in the grass. There didn't seem to be many cockroaches to eat. Maybe because it's been hot and dry with no rain lately.

A Ruddy Kingfisher hatched this year. It had apparently just eaten a slug or something — there was mucus around the base of its bill. ^^;

The darkening at the base of the bill is proof it was born this year.

The Eurasian Hoopoe seemed to be feeling the heat too, foraging in the shade as much as possible.

When a car passed, it was startled and perched in a tree.

Painusima Ishigaki Airport is close by and you can hear the roar of planes taking off and landing, yet they are nesting here.

A White-winged Tern that caught a large grasshopper.

This one caught a grasshopper too. There are far more grasshoppers hiding in the pasture than I'd expected.

Chinese Sparrowhawk, adult female.

Chinese Sparrowhawk, juvenile.

The largest kettle of the day — around 200 birds.

It caught a large Sakishima flat stag beetle.

A Barn Swallow on its southward migration.

The Oriental Pratincoles were in a flock of around 20.

A juvenile Chinese Sparrowhawk.

Also a juvenile. At the moment, juveniles make up a large proportion of the flock.

The only kettling of the day. It was an exceptionally dense, impressive kettle.

The bill colour is just enough to tell it's a first-year bird. When I found it, it was eating what appeared to be a stick insect.

It was startled by a Brown-eared Bulbul.

A beautiful juvenile.

I also tried shooting at 200mm. I left my lens cap behind in the sugarcane field… ^^;