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

Little Terns preparing to nest in the middle of town.

A Ruddy Kingfisher nesting in southern Okinawa Island, at a spot about 30 minutes from home by car. The hole looks to have been dug within the last few days.

Wood shavings had piled up on the leaves of a Giant Taro plant below the nest hole.

A Common Redshank fully into summer plumage.

At the far end of the pond, a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Long-toed Stint, and Wood Sandpiper were feeding together. So far away… ^^;

Whether they're being replaced by new birds or not, the Black-winged Stilts just keep on being there.

About 100 Pacific Golden Plovers were enduring the storm and heavy rain.

Kentish Plovers soaked to the skin in the rain.

Pacific Golden Plovers sheltering from the rain in the grass.

By 5 p.m. the rain had stopped and the Pacific Golden Plovers were out searching for food.

Searching for food with mud-covered bills.

Same here.

A Black-tailed Godwit in beautiful summer plumage.

There were around five Marsh Sandpipers.

Little Tern. Feels like summer has arrived.

A Common Greenshank bathing.

There were also a few Grey-tailed Tattlers.

A Dunlin in beautiful summer plumage.

There was also a Long-toed Stint.

Pacific Golden Plovers are everywhere.

A Little Tern came to bathe as well.

An Osprey overhead too.

A female Ryukyu Paradise Flycatcher brought nesting material. It should be finished in another two or three days.

My first photo of a Ryukyu Bush Warbler. Always a tough subject, deep in the undergrowth. ^^;

A Zitting Cisticola nest now fully exposed. Here's hoping it isn't found by crows or the like.

There were more wood shavings from the Ruddy Kingfisher's nest-hole digging.

On the way home, rescued a fledgling Oriental Turtle Dove. Successfully reunited with its parent.

An adult Zitting Cisticola bringing in a jumping spider.

The parent carrying a chick's fecal sac out of the nest.

A fine male Okinawa Woodpecker.

This is a female Okinawa Woodpecker. The prey in her bill looks like a centipede.

The food the male brings is often something hard to identify — because it's already been dismembered, perhaps?

Apparently male Okinawa Woodpeckers hunt mainly on the ground, but…

The female brings prey in whole.

This is the female of a pair of Okinawa Woodpeckers I was watching. Her mate looked busy — foraging and drumming.

An adult male Ryukyu Robin, holding a caterpillar in its bill. It appeared to be courtship feeding, but it was happening inside the undergrowth so I couldn't confirm.

Rain came partway through, and the Okinawa Robin looked like it was thoroughly enjoying the shower. ^^

The Okinawa Robin looks adorable, but crop in hard and those eyes are surprisingly sharp and fierce.

Okinawa Robin dance? It was constantly fanning its tail.

It brought food to the nest I had repaired. I wonder if the chicks will make it.

The Zitting Cisticola seems to sense that the number of chicks is short, and stands staring at the base of the shrubbery.

The Zitting Cisticola searching desperately for its chick below the nest. It's heartbreaking.

A Zitting Cisticola chick, taken by ants. They haven't gotten very far into it yet, so this must have happened just a few hours before I arrived on the scene.

Whenever another Little Tern approached, it launched from the nest and chased it off.

It looks like there are three eggs.

A female Pryer's Woodpecker arrived carrying an insect that looked like a cricket.

A female Pryer's Woodpecker coming out with a chick's fecal sac.

The male brought the same kind of insect.

The male Okinawa Robin appeared to be in a territorial dispute with the male in the next territory.

The rival also fanned its tail feathers in a threat display.

The larva the Ashy Minivet had caught was a fluorescent yellow. Looks toxic — I hope it was okay… ^^;

I had been searching through the woodland, and when I happened to glance the other way, a Brown Hawk-Owl was watching me from a conspicuous branch. ^^;

A male Brown Hawk-Owl. Unlike the Oriental Scops Owl, Brown Hawk-Owls keep watch from an exposed spot while nesting.

The Ruddy Kingfisher showed itself for just a moment, then was gone in an instant. This was all I could get… ^^;

On Ishigaki the Ruddy Kingfisher is easy to shoot to your heart's content, but in southern Okinawa Island encounters are rare. There are reasonable numbers up in Yambaru, but getting shots there is difficult.

A Japanese Paradise Flycatcher was also incubating nearby. When I confirmed incubation on the 14th, it would leave the nest every time a school-trip group passed by, but it seems to have settled in quite a bit — today it didn't fly off at all. Quite a resilient Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. ^^

The female does almost all the incubating. The nest is built on a slender vine, so it swayed with every gust of wind.

It occasionally leaves the nest, probably to go feed, and returns within about 20 minutes. There seems to be another pair nearby — I could hear them calling from time to time.

It brought spider silk.

It carefully applies the spider silk with its bill.

Almost finished.