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

Female Ryukyu Sparrowhawk. She is gripping a small bird in her talons, delivered by the male.

In males, the eye colour differs considerably between Japanese Sparrowhawk and Ryukyu Sparrowhawk, but in females the difference is hard to tell. If anything, I get the impression that the rufous tones in the chest markings are slightly more brownish in Ryukyu Sparrowhawk than in Japanese Sparrowhawk.

Three Black-faced Spoonbills are staying in the area, including this young individual.

Male Ruddy Kingfisher.

Female Ruddy Kingfisher. Paired with the individual above. The white feathering around the ear area is the distinguishing mark of this bird.

The female individual above caught a Sakishima grass lizard.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in splendid male plumage.

A Ruddy Kingfisher holding territory at the entrance to a forest track. Sex unknown.

A Ruddy Kingfisher perched high in a Giran strangler fig. Probably female.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in the park. Female. A parent and child were playing badminton nearby, but the bird didn't seem to mind much.

A Ruddy Kingfisher from the neighbourhood. Sex unknown. One of a pair that has already begun excavating a nest hole.

Common Redshank moulting into summer plumage.

Common Greenshank in almost full summer plumage. It was a small individual.

Male Black-winged Stilt in summer plumage.

Female Black-winged Stilt in summer plumage.

Grey-tailed Tattler in summer plumage.

An adult Black Drongo resting in the shade of a tree. A beautiful bird with a metallic sheen.

This is a first-winter Black Drongo. The white barring on the undertail-coverts and the white spots on the underwing-coverts are conspicuous.

The dark red eye and the small white spot at the base of the bill are visible.

The feathers on the head are heavily missing. Whether it is moult or some mishap, I'm not sure.

An adult Black Drongo perched on a traveller's palm. The tail feathers are ragged, so it must be mid-moult from winter to summer plumage — but since the whole bird is jet black, there's no telling the two apart anyway… ^^;

A Greater Crested Tern that came in fairly close. Every individual was already in full summer plumage.

A Greater Crested Tern catching a shrimp far out.

It wheels and dives sharply to take prey. The water surface is almost completely hidden by the breakwater in the foreground…

What a sight it was — huge Greater Crested Terns, with wingspans of around 140 cm, wheeling overhead in numbers!!

A pair of Ruddy Kingfishers out on the forest road together in the rain.

Another red bird of Ishigaki Island — the Ryukyu Striated Heron.

A Ryukyu Striated Heron on alert as a crow approaches the nest.

Apart from the Eastern Spot-billed Ducks, the others had all moved north and gone, but one Northern Shoveler (left) — a juvenile male — had stayed behind in the paddies. The Eastern Spot-billed Ducks, the only species that breeds on Ishigaki Island, have been appearing with their chicks in the paddies and irrigation channels for about two weeks now.

A Greater Crested Tern flying over the sea with mountains behind.

A Greater Crested Tern with a large shrimp.

Flying in tandem, but unfortunately the sky turned overcast.

Shot with a Sony α9 II, a Metabones V mount adapter, and a Canon EF 600mm F4L IS II USM. The camera tracks focus reliably even on Greater Crested Terns coming straight at you.

Large numbers of Intermediate Egrets were also showing up to hunt fish.

A beautiful Ruddy Kingfisher was in the dark forest after the rain had cleared.

Shot at ISO 3200. The Sony α9 II loses out to the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II up to around ISO 800 or so, but beyond that the α9 II wins. ^^

A female Crested Serpent Eagle perched in a Chinese hackberry, drying its wings.

Same individual as above. I've been watching this Crested Serpent Eagle for a long time now.

Photos taken after rain, when the bark and ground turn deep and rich, are really something. The Malayan Night Heron was walking through the park searching for prey.

I was able to see a Ryukyu Scops Owl in daylight for the first time in a while. A male.

The tree hollow where it was perched is believed to be the nest.

In the woodland where the Oriental Scops Owl raises its young, Ruddy Kingfishers, Brown Hawk-Owls, and Japanese Paradise Flycatchers also nest every year.

This is the female Oriental Scops Owl paired with the individual above. She can be distinguished from the owl above by her darker ear tufts. She was peering out from the nest tree.

A female Ruddy Kingfisher in the park.

This is a male Ruddy Kingfisher from a different location.

A female Ruddy Kingfisher on a forest road. She's almost always on her favourite branch. This is an individually identified bird.

This Ruddy Kingfisher is in the park — my first photograph of this individual. Probably a male.

Sex is not entirely clear, but this is probably a female Brown Hawk-Owl. The male was nearby, but leaves were blocking him and I could only see half his body.

A female Oriental Scops Owl. The male was nearby too, but he was perched in a cluttered spot and only visible as a silhouette.

The Oriental Scops Owls will probably use this tree hollow. Clinging to the entrance are a moth with charming polka-dot markings and an Aomiokatagaishi — a land snail with a beautiful emerald-green shell — an unusual land mollusc that has an operculum. ^^

A Japanese White-eye in the middle of nest building. Once the chicks hatch, I'll show them to the kids. ^^

A Brown-eared Bulbul raising young plants itself right in front of you like this. It seems to be trying to draw attention away from the nest.

A Crested Serpent Eagle soaked to the skin in the rain. Afterwards it caught a snake and vanished into the forest.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher. Also completely drenched.

I didn't see the female Ruddy Kingfisher, so she may have started incubating.

With the rain falling, the Ruddy Kingfisher was noticeably less wary than usual.

The Chinese Egret appeared to be walking along the coast at low tide, picking up small fish and crustaceans.

A Chinese Egret that caught a long, slender fish resembling a conger eel.

The local tough of the shoreline — a Pacific Reef Heron — showed up and gave me a start, and I jumped. ^^

This Chinese Egret caught a small goby.

Targeting prey in the water. The hunt failed after this. ^^;

Walking across a sea turned brown by heavy rain.

Whether it's because they're passing through on migration or just their nature, Chinese Egrets don't chase other individuals around the way Pacific Reef Herons do.

Three Chinese Egrets hunting at a river mouth in heavy rain.

The white morph Pacific Reef Heron caught a small tropical fish.

Tossed up and swallowed whole.

They come quite close, but with nothing but a pure white sky as the background, the Great Crested Terns just don't look their best. ^^;

Spotting prey and diving.

Great Crested Terns were diving all over the place, but every single one was too far away…

A few White-winged Terns were also mixed in with the Great Crested Tern flock, hunting alongside them.

The rain was getting heavier, but the Great Crested Terns were feeding actively. I, with no waterproofing, beat a retreat….

Without my noticing, my three-year-old son — who has lately been getting into cameras — had crept up behind me while I was shooting Great Crested Terns and taken a photo of me. ^^

An adult male Crimson Dove that arrived on spring migration. It was spending time together with an Oriental Turtle Dove.

A Crimson Dove pecking up fallen grain in a field after the harvest of ultra-early-season rice.

Adult Scaly-breasted Munia. They do damage rice crops, but they also eat weed seeds.

Juvenile Scaly-breasted Munia. This small flock had several juveniles in tow.

There were no other Brown Hawk-Owls nearby, and a female is presumably incubating, but I couldn't find anything that looked like a nest tree.

Adult Common Hill Myna. Apart from perching on power lines, it kept disappearing into dense leafy trees and was quite hard to locate.

It wasn't particularly wary, but it reacted noticeably to Oriental Turtle Doves doing display flights with crows.

Depending on the angle of the light, it showed a beautifully metallic sheen. True to the name Common Hill Myna, the deep green feathers and red eyes are striking.

When the Oriental Turtle Dove doing its display flight passed overhead, the Daurian Starling took this evasive posture. Perhaps it was ready to drop down and hide in the bushes at any moment.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in a dim woodland. It appears to have come to bathe in a puddle on the path.

This individual is relaxed enough that it doesn't flush even when a car passes underneath.

There were about three Pectoral Sandpipers in summer plumage. Haven't seen them in a while. ^^

Just one Red-necked Stint, tagging along after the Pectoral Sandpipers.

Black-winged Stilts numbered in the teens.

A Marsh Sandpiper in summer plumage, distant.

The Common Greenshank is distant too. The rain that had fallen until yesterday cleared as if it had never happened, and heat rising from the warmed ground caused the air to shimmer — I couldn't get a decent focus… ^^;

White-winged Tern in summer plumage.

White-winged Tern perched on a power line.

The Black-bellied Terns were skimming back and forth over the water surface, hunting for prey.

A Caspian Tern flew by against a patch of blue sky showing through a gap in the clouds.

The upperparts of the Caspian Tern are a mid-tone grey. You can also see the moult pattern quite clearly.

A Black-bellied Tern flying over the sea alongside the Caspian Terns.

A White-winged Tern dropped a bomb!!

The back of the White-winged Tern is quite dark, sooty grey.

White-winged Tern (right) and Black-bellied Tern flying in tandem. You can see the difference in back colour. And the flanks and belly of the White-winged Tern are jet black.

It's just an ordinary sedimentation pond they're flying around, but when the wire fence stays out of frame it has quite a nice feel to it.

First-summer Black-bellied Terns, a few of which were mixed in with the group.

One Black-bellied Tern looking straight at the camera.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher found on a forest road.

Same individual as above. The red of the Ruddy Kingfisher stands out beautifully against the lush green.

A female paired with the individual above. She is the least wary of all the Ruddy Kingfishers I have been watching.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher at the park.

The female paired with the individual above. She is also relatively unwary.

A Ruddy Kingfisher, apparently a male. This is my first time observing this individual.

This Ruddy Kingfisher was in the coastal woodland. Also apparently a male.

A female Oriental Scops Owl incubating eggs. Perhaps she poked her head out of the nest hole because she sensed someone nearby?

A male Brown Hawk-Owl keeping watch over the nest. This pair has been using the same nesting tree for a long time.

On the forest road, a female Crested Serpent Eagle was perched on a tree fern.

A Slaty-legged Crake appearing in the park car park almost every day.