褐色味の強いオオヨシキリ4羽
田んぼでオオヨシキリの小さな群れを発見。ススキや雑草の間を少なくとも4羽で移動していました。渡りの時期に石垣島で4羽も同時に見るのは初めてです。与那国島でも春の渡りの時期に見ていますが写真が撮れておらず、沖縄でここまで鮮明に撮れたのは初めてです。^^
しかし、このオオヨシキリたちはどの個体も今まで見たどのオオヨシキリよりも褐色味が強い羽色をしていました。日ごろ見ているオオヨシキリとは違う亜種かと思い、文献を調べてみるも詳細は不明です。
同じエリアの田んぼには、ムネアカタヒバリやベニバト、ホシムクドリが滞在中です。子連れバードウオッチングだったので写真は省略。悪しからず…。^^;
The Great Reed Warbler normally stays stubbornly hidden in the sugarcane fields and undergrowth, but the timing coincided with a break in the rain and it briefly came out into the open where I could see it well.
Same individual as above. It appeared to be drying its rain-soaked feathers.
This one pushed the bird above off its perch, so it is the same leaf but a different Great Reed Warbler. It looks even more heavily washed with brown.
More than ten Red-throated Pipits had come down into the recently harvested paddy. A Rosy Starling and a Pale-backed Pigeon were also mixed in among the flock of Oriental Turtle Doves in the same field.
My son can now tell several species apart. Birdwatching with him — a fan of the picture books Tsubame Kōkū, Poppo Kōkū and Karugamo Yūranssen (all by Keiji Motoyasu) — is a real pleasure.