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

A Chinese Pond Heron looking upward, fixing its sights on something.

What it had caught turned out to be a gecko that had been up in a tree. Geckos bask in the sun during the day, so perhaps that was what it was targeting.

It caught a spider of the kind often seen at the water's edge.

Locking its gaze onto the water's surface.

What it caught was a guppy. I usually see Chinese Pond Herons in pastures and paddies, so this was the first time I had come across one catching a fish.

A Chinese Pond Heron staring straight at me. After this it came closer. An individual this unguarded is unusual.

It seems to have finally started moulting into breeding plumage — feathers were being replaced here and there. It would be nice if it stayed long enough to come into full breeding plumage.

A Chinese Pond Heron lit by the evening sun.

A female Japanese Sparrowhawk. Adults are about this grey, so I expect this is a young bird.

A young male Japanese Sparrowhawk, probably hatched last year. The adult male has an even more vivid blue-grey than this individual.

A male bringing in nest material. The Ryukyu Sparrowhawks of the Yaeyamas nest in broadleaf trees, but Japanese Sparrowhawks nest in Ryukyu Pine and ironwood.

A Little Tern that caught a goby. It seemed to want to courtship-feed, and was chasing another Little Tern around with the prey still in its bill.

A Kentish Plover caught in heat fitting for the start of summer. It was shading the eggs with its body.

The heat seems to be taking its toll on the parent too — it had its bill open. Three eggs are visible beneath its belly.

A male Brown Hawk-Owl. The female is presumably incubating.

With this Brown Hawk-Owl pair too, the female is incubating.

This pair is extremely wary, so hiding as I was, this kind of shot was all I could manage. ^^; Even when I hide, they seem to sense my presence somehow and are watching with their eyes wide open. That kind of look means they are startled or on guard. When Brown Hawk-Owls have that piercing, glaring expression like the two in the photos above, they are often not particularly alarmed.

They are so easily disturbed that last year I only visited twice to check on the nesting. This year I expect I will go back just once more, around the time the chicks are about to fledge.

A chick a few days old.

A chick that had been hidden under the parent's wing has come out. The other one is still tucked under the wing.

A Kentish Plover chick about four days old.

Some nests had not yet hatched. The male was incubating.

A pair of Little Terns was building a nest.

A Pacific Golden Plover in breeding plumage.

A Common Greenshank in breeding plumage.

A female Ryukyu Robin calling in alarm.

A female Ryukyu Flycatcher. She was singing occasionally.

A female Ryukyu Robin.

Nearby, a Crested Tree Lizard was basking in the sun. It was a much more vivid green than the Crested Tree Lizards of the Yaeyamas.

A male Okinawa Woodpecker returning to the nest with two cockroaches in its bill.

Male Okinawa Woodpeckers don't only forage for insects and fruit up in the trees — they also search for prey on the ground. He was coming back with cockroaches at intervals of a few minutes, so there must be a favorite cockroach spot nearby.

The male coming out of the nest with a chick's fecal sac in his bill.

The female brought an unidentified berry.

A male Okinawa Woodpecker.

On the way back, an Ishikawa's Frog — the blue color form — was watching me from a drainage pipe. ^^

An enormous flock of waders, too many to count. Dunlins were the most common.

Dunlins on the upper part, Grey Plovers on the lower.

There were also 5 Black-faced Spoonbills.

I only saw 2 Eurasian Magpies.

A Kentish Plover chick. Just a few days after hatching, it was already finding and eating tiny insects on its own.

Another Kentish Plover chick. It appears to be about two weeks post-hatching, but when danger approaches it still tries to tuck under the parent's belly.

Small insects and similar prey seem to be plentiful near the puddle, and three chicks had gathered there.

A Kentish Plover chick that has caught a small insect.

When I keep still with the camera ready, they just keep coming closer and closer.

This chick also appears to be about two weeks post-hatching.

Left: Eurasian Tree Sparrow; right: Kentish Plover chick.

There appear to be several chicks in the grass as well.

A male Kentish Plover.

This one is a female Kentish Plover.

The Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Scaly-breasted Munias were eating grass seeds. They didn't seem to bother each other.

A female Japanese Sparrowhawk eating a Warbling White-eye.

A male Japanese Sparrowhawk. The pair here shows no fear of people whatsoever, making observation easy.

She was slow to eat the prey received from the male — either being fussy about it or simply not hungry….

The female Brown Hawk-Owl is incubating; the male keeps watch near the nest tree.

The wings and tail feathers are ragged. The tail is so ragged it looks almost like a White-throated Needletail. ^^;

The Red-rumped Swallows were in a small flock of several birds.

The Sand Martins were also in a small flock of several birds.

There were large numbers of Barn Swallows and Ryukyu Swallows.

A male Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. It was the short-tailed type.

A Ruddy Kingfisher nest. I spotted the bird itself three times at two locations, but wasn't able to get a shot.

Wood chips fallen at the base of the nesting tree of a Ruddy Kingfisher.

A Black-crowned Night Heron was waiting for prey at the edge of a pond.

Ten flowers on three stems of Hoya carnosa were in full bloom.

Hoya carnosa has quite an unusual way of blooming.

A Zitting Cisticola chick that received a mantis. The parent is on the right.

Parent Zitting Cisticola (above) and chick. It is rare for them to perch in such an open spot.

A Zitting Cisticola chick. Even as a chick, already doing the "cisticola stance".

Adult Zitting Cisticola. Light rain was falling, but it kept steadily raising its chicks.

Two Zitting Cisticola chicks.

The chick begs for food from the parent at lower right, but the parent has already fed another chick.

A Zitting Cisticola chick being fed inside the grass.

The prey brought in was again a mantis larva.

Female Zitting Cisticola parent. Only the female raises the chicks.

Adult Zitting Cisticola.

It perched on a corn leaf.

A Zitting Cisticola chick standing on cut grass.

Three Zitting Cisticola chicks are in the frame.