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

A female Ryukyu Scops Owl. Since I have confirmed mating, the sexes of the Ryukyu Scops Owls I have observed here are now clear. This one is the male, and here, the first and third images are the female and the second and sixth are the male. The other individuals are from a different area.

A small and charming Taiga Flycatcher. This is only the second record for Ishigaki Island in 16 years, and the first time one has been photographed there.

The Taiga Flycatcher stretched out!! Even cuter than before.

The back of the Taiga Flycatcher. First-summer plumage, perhaps.

Apart from the colouring, the Taiga Flycatcher is rather like a Dark-sided Flycatcher. It was catching prey in the air, just like a Dark-sided Flycatcher. By the time it returned to its perch, it had already swallowed the food.

A front-on view. The Taiga Flycatcher was charming from every angle.

A pair of Ruddy Kingfishers were excavating a nest hole. This individual is probably the female.

A female Siberian Meadow Bunting. When it flew up, the white outer tail feathers were conspicuous.

An adult Purple Heron, bathed in evening light on a pasture.

Brown Shrikes were all over the island.

A Brown Shrike that had caught some kind of larva.

At the mouth of the nearby Isobegawa River, five Black-faced Spoonbills were resting.

There was also a Far Eastern Curlew.

White-breasted Waterhen, scarce on the Okinawa mainland, is plentiful on Ishigaki Island.

Two Bar-tailed Godwits, unusual visitors, had come in to Sankakuike pond. It may be the first time I have seen them anywhere other than the sea.

There were also two Marsh Sandpipers. In the foreground is a Common Greenshank.

Nearby, a Common Snipe was out in the open — an unusual sight.

Among a flock of Northern Shovelers there was just one female Eurasian Teal.

A Ryukyu Kingfisher singing beneath the large leaves of a sea hibiscus, as if to escape the heat. Probably a male.

It was so hot that the kingfisher was also bathing in a nearby puddle. After the bath, it shook its body with a shudder.

A Yellow-throated Bunting stretching up to peck at grass seeds growing in the lawn.

Where the grass was tall, the Yellow-throated Bunting moved by hopping up into the air.

A Ryukyu Kingfisher was perched in the shade of a tree. Beautiful among the green.

It was relaxed and preening, but a crow that was nest-building nearby came to disturb it and the bird disappeared into the vegetation.

A Crested Serpent Eagle hatched last year. From this point in its second calendar year, it begins moulting into adult plumage and by around autumn will look indistinguishable from a full adult. It was a remarkably tame individual.

An adult Crested Serpent Eagle in the rice paddies, eyeing prey in the irrigation channel. A crab, perhaps.

Great Knots transitioning from winter to summer plumage.

A Great Knot stretching.

It caught a bivalve and swallowed it whole.

Greater Sand Plover, adult summer plumage.

Isabelline Shrike, adult male, summer plumage.

The Eastern Yellow Wagtail is mid-way through its moult into summer plumage and looks rather scruffy.

Ryukyu Kingfisher, male.

It coughed up a pellet. It contained beetle elytra and the like.

A Brown Hawk-Owl pair preparing to nest. The male is on the right, the female on the left. They appear to have been roosting together for about ten days already.

With this Brown Hawk-Owl pair, the male seemed to be the calmer of the two.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl, male. It was calling persistently, trying to attract a female.

Also a male. It was singing from inside a solitary tree in a car park. Nearby, several other males were also calling through the dark, competing for females.

This one wasn't singing, but presumed to be a male Ryukyu Scops Owl.

A pair of Brown Hawk-Owls. Male on the left, female on the right.

Sunlight was hitting the green behind the bird, giving it a colour typical of early Okinawan summer. This is already processed with the most subdued settings. ^^;

A very obliging Ruddy Kingfisher. My son got a great close-up view as well.

The Ruddy Kingfisher spun around and showed off its blue rump too.