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

A juvenile Crested Serpent Eagle. An individual that is a little too used to people — slightly worrying.

The same individual as above. It was walking as if favouring its right foot. Had it been injured?

A Black-winged Kite that failed to breed. According to someone who observes them daily, there was an irresponsible person who approached the nest tree on foot.

In the evening, a Black-winged Kite crossing over a sugarcane field.

A Grey-faced Buzzard that hasn't migrated yet. Last year's birds don't take part in breeding, so perhaps they're in no hurry?

A Common Kestrel in a field in the evening.

A flock of (Yellow-browed) Eastern Yellow Wagtails that came down into a field.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher. I believe this is summer plumage, but I can't really tell the difference…

The female paired with the male above. When the male called from deep in the bushes, she was bobbing her tail up and down.

The Ruddy Kingfisher's light-blue rump feathers are beautiful.

This is the male Ruddy Kingfisher. Partly due to the light, the blue on his rump looked paler than on the female above.

It appears to have mostly moulted into summer plumage, but the primaries seem not yet.

A Eurasian Hoopoe standing alone by the roadside. Afterwards it was flushed by a bunch of noisy buggy riders. ^^;

Two Eurasian Hoopoes foraging together.

It seemed there were many insects hiding at the base of the tree — prime Hoopoe food.

A Eurasian Hoopoe glancing our way because my son was making noise.

There also seems to be plenty of food along the edge of the lawn.

A Chinese Pond Heron that suddenly appeared while I was watching a large flock of herons. Beautiful summer plumage. I rushed the shot and it came out blurry…. A total of three Chinese Pond Herons were recorded on the island.

Two Spotted Redshanks resting in the rice paddies. First-winter plumage.

Black-winged Stilts increased sharply; I saw several flocks of dozens of birds.

Herons gathered in the paddies: Great Egret, Intermediate Egret, Little Egret, and Eastern Cattle Egret. Great Egrets are only seen on Ishigaki Island at this time of year. This individual is notably large-bodied with pale tibiae, so it is presumably what is known as the Great White Egret subspecies.

A Garganey in the rice paddy. It was very wary — when I first spotted it, only its head was poking out of the grass — but after waiting a while it showed its full body. ^^

The female in the foreground doesn't appear to have changed into breeding plumage yet.

A male Garganey with females on either side.

A female Northern Shoveler in juvenile plumage, the only one mixed into a flock of Garganey.

The two Spotted Redshanks that have been staying since the other day <https://shimasoba.com/blog/1562/>_. An adult in winter plumage and, on the right, a first-winter.

The Spotted Redshanks are relatively distant, but this time they came in close.

A wing-flap from a different individual than above.

A Wood Sandpiper transitioning from first-winter to summer plumage.

Same here.

A Common Greenshank moving into first-summer plumage.

A Wood Sandpiper was eating a frog.

Wood Sandpiper in summer plumage.

Temminck's Stint, adult.

A different individual from above. Also an adult.

A fight between two male Black-winged Stilts.

A Grey-headed Lapwing, a rare bird in the Yaeyamas.

The wintering Red-throated Pipit has come into full colour.

More and more Eastern Cattle Egrets are now showing birds transitioning into summer plumage.

Feeding in the rice paddies together with a flock of over ten Black-winged Stilts, 2 Spotted Redshanks, 3 Marsh Sandpipers, and others.

The metal ring is engraved with "P.O. BOX 96-216 TAIPEI M01093".

Ryukyu Cinnamon Bittern, adult male in summer plumage.

The Chinese Pond Heron is also in full summer plumage. I've had many chances to see them this season.

A Red-throated Pipit in beautiful summer plumage.

A male White Wagtail in summer plumage, occasionally murmuring softly.

A Red-throated Pipit emerging from the green shadows.

A male Black-winged Stilt in breeding plumage, its breast tinged a pale pink.

Temminck's Stints moult late, so opportunities to see them in summer plumage are rare — but this one showed a little.

A White-breasted Waterhen pecking at grass seeds.

A male Zitting Cisticola coming into breeding plumage.

This Red-throated Pipit is in full moult.

A Swinhoe's Snipe on the paddy bund. First confirmed individual of the season.

Another Swinhoe's Snipe.

A Common Snipe. The coverts are quite worn. First-summer plumage, perhaps?

Both Common Snipe. The bird on the left is the same individual as above.

I could only observe it head-on, but it is probably a Swinhoe's Snipe.

A Common Snipe. After preening I hoped it would spread its wings or tail, but no luck….

For a moment it looked like a Pin-tailed Snipe, but it turned out to be a Swinhoe's Snipe.

The most advanced in summer plumage among the six Temminck's Stints present. Almost fully there — though I doubt it will stick around long enough to complete the moult.

A Common Greenshank progressing through its moult into summer plumage.

Both a male and female Greater Painted-snipe were present, but they kept moving through the rice stalks, so the only photo I managed was of the female from behind…. ^^;

A male Ryukyu Kingfisher.

The same individual as above. A female is also to the right, but the leaves were in the way and I couldn't get a shot.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher. Too dark — came out blurred….

An adult Malayan Night Heron in the park.

Chinese Pond Herons are numerous this season — close to ten individuals have been observed over the past few days.

A Curlew Sandpiper moulting into summer plumage.

It caught what looked like a small earthworm or bloodworm.

Another catch. It was feeding voraciously, building up reserves for the journey further north.

The breast area is also turning red.

The six Temminck's Stints had been reduced to two.

Temminck's Stints at the river mouth. They are gradually changing into their beautiful summer plumage.

The Dunlin is still in first-winter plumage — battered and ragged from the long journey.

A male Kentish Plover, still in winter plumage.

There were several Common Snipe in the paddies.

A Whiskered Tern in flight. Full Sony native setup.

Same as above.

Shot with a Sony body and Canon lens.

This one also with the Sony body and Canon lens. I really felt the power of the Sony body. The Whiskered Tern is holding a small dragonfly in its bill.

Shot with the Sony setup.

This one also with the Sony setup.

The Brown Shrike is still around. A few Pale Thrushes and Dusky Thrushes were still lingering as well.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher opened its bill wide — I thought it was going to regurgitate a pellet, but it didn't. ^^;

Two Ruddy Kingfishers together deep in the undergrowth. They seemed to be searching for a nesting site, always staying close to each other. The individual on the right is the female.

A Ruddy Kingfisher perched right in front of me. I think the Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfisher is considerably more purple than the mainland form.

Against the all-red body, the light blue on the back stands out.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher.

The female paired with the individual above.

An adult male Red-rumped Swallow.

Every time it wheeled around, the colour of its underparts caught the eye.

There were several dozen swallows in the air, but the wind direction was unfavourable and they were difficult to shoot.

Whiskered Terns were fluttering back and forth over the rice.

One dived into the rice and caught a dragonfly.

It swallowed the dragonfly whole in flight, wings and all.

A flock of Wood Sandpipers flushed by a Black-winged Kite. Two Temminck's Stints are also present.

Every bird in the frame is a Wood Sandpiper.

An Oriental Pratincole in beautiful breeding plumage.

By the time I found it the harvest was already over, but it was probably searching for insects flushed out by the sugarcane cutting.

An adult Purple Heron took a large Black Rat.

A young bird from last year had also caught a Black Rat.

The first Pin-tailed Snipe of the season.

The Pin-tailed Snipe wanted to forage along the paddy bund, but was repeatedly chased off by a Common Moorhen that was on edge from nesting.

Finally managed to photograph a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in breeding plumage this season.

First confirmed Eurasian Curlew of the season.

A Greater Sand Plover transitioning into breeding plumage. It seems that the Lesser Sand Plover subspecies — commonly known as Chūmedaichidori — also visits Yaeyama and Okinawa, and resembles the Greater Sand Plover.

High tide had pushed a group of Pacific Golden Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones up onto the rocks to rest.

A dark-morph Pacific Reef Heron. It was chasing a white-morph individual around.

A Black-winged Kite gripping a half-eaten mouse in its left foot. It was 120 metres away, so extreme cropping was needed!!

The Black-winged Kite eating its meal seemed to find the crow rather annoying.

A Black-winged Kite that had caught a mouse.

Torresian Crow in flight.

It was driving other crows out of its territory. Probably getting ready to breed.

Eastern Spot-billed Ducks coming down into a rice paddy. A male Garganey dropped in after them.

An Eastern Spot-billed Duck missing its primary feathers. I wonder if it had some kind of accident.

A Purple Heron that had turned up in a sugarcane field.

Oriental Pratincole in flight. Sony setup.

Oriental Pratincole in flight. Canon 600mm on a Sony body. When flying at top speed with a tailwind, I felt the autofocus couldn't quite keep up.

With the 600mm, the rendering of a perched subject is superb.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher.

A Ruddy Kingfisher that perched on a branch right in front of me.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher singing.

A Ruddy Kingfisher perched on a Mucuna vine. A very Okinawan scene.

Another Ruddy Kingfisher, also believed to be a male.

A female Crested Serpent Eagle. She was calling in a wheedling way, begging the male to bring her food.

Male Crested Serpent Eagle — the partner of the female above. The underparts of the male appear more greyish compared to the female.

A Japanese Night Heron emerging from deep shadow. A beautiful individual.

From the front.

A Japanese Night Heron that came close enough to fill the 600mm frame.

Japanese Night Heron from behind. Compared to the Malayan Night Heron, whose crest extends down to the back, the crest of the Japanese Night Heron is barely noticeable.

This one is a Malayan Night Heron. The large black crest is prominent.

A Malayan Night Heron that has caught a Ryukyu tree frog.

Malayan Night Heron from behind.

This one is a Japanese Night Heron from behind.

The bird was too close, so I zoomed out to get the shot — Japanese Night Heron.

A close-up of Japanese Night Heron. What a fine bird.

The Japanese Night Heron also appears to be showing breeding coloration.

A Japanese Night Heron that kept walking back and forth in front of me for a good while — great entertainment.

In the evening the Ryukyu Kingfisher seemed to be moving around actively; I came across many individuals along forest roads and in parks.

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in breeding plumage. It caught a small earthworm-like prey item.

A new group of four Sharp-tailed Sandpipers has arrived.

Black-faced Spoonbill in breeding plumage. The crest has grown out and breeding coloration has appeared on the chest — a beautiful sight.

Chinese Pond Heron in breeding plumage. No breeding coloration showing yet. This season Chinese Pond Herons are being observed in good numbers.

Eastern Cattle Egret in breeding plumage. No breeding coloration on the face or bill yet. There were still many individuals remaining in winter plumage.

Little Egret with the crest just beginning to grow out. No breeding coloration showing yet.

The Intermediate Egret has fine breeding plumes out, but the eye colour is still far from breeding condition.

The Great Egret is still in full winter plumage.

Black-tailed Godwit male moulting into summer plumage.

First Eurasian Curlew of the season. The Far Eastern Curlew from the other day was at the same spot.

Marsh Sandpiper, first-summer plumage.

This is the best I could manage of the Curlew Sandpiper…. Believed to be a different individual from the one the other day.

While looking for snipe, a female Greater Painted-snipe turned up. Painted-snipe are always like this…. ^^;

Oriental Pratincole in summer plumage. After being caught in a downpour, it shook its body vigorously to shed the water.

The individual on the right has just a hint of summer plumage coming through, but is essentially a Grey Plover in winter plumage.

A flock of a dozen or so Terek Sandpipers arrived. First photos of the season.

A flock of around 20 Grey-tailed Tattlers. Every individual is in the process of moulting into summer plumage.

Common Sandpiper transitioning to first-summer plumage.

A group of about ten Sharp-tailed Sandpipers had come down into the rice paddies.

With no one around, a Ruddy Kingfisher resting at its leisure.

A male Crested Serpent Eagle along the roadside. Traffic accidents are a concern, but vehicle numbers on Ishigaki Island are down due to COVID-19.

Crested Serpent Eagle shot handheld at 840mm with a shutter speed of 1/15. Sony's image stabilisation is impressive.

This one was shot at ISO 3200. Heavily cropped, but the noise is barely noticeable.

This one is a distant Crested Serpent Eagle, cropped drastically.

A Buff-bellied Pipit in light rain.

A different individual Buff-bellied Pipit from the one above.

Black-faced Spoonbill in summer plumage. In the background, a group of Eastern Spot-billed Ducks.

Also in the rain, a Ryukyu Green Pigeon perched on a distant shrub.

A male Peregrine Falcon that failed in its hunt. The feathers are quite wet from the heavy rain that had just passed. All the other falcons and raptors had long since headed north toward their breeding grounds — for a male, this one is taking its time.

Yūyū the Crested Serpent Eagle. He was eating a large Sakishima rat snake up in an Mallotus japonicus tree.

A female Crested Serpent Eagle that flew out from right below the spot where Yūyū was perched.

Yūyū, the male, is on the right; his breeding partner, the female, is on the left.

He passed the prey to the female.

After a while, Yūyū flew off to a nearby branch. The feathers are dirty with mud, but you can see the green leg ring on the right leg.

The Sakishima rat snake looked to be well over a metre long — a big one. After this, the female Crested Serpent Eagle disappeared back into the undergrowth with the prey.

Yūyū, moved to a nearby branch.

A young Tufted Duck in the sedimentation pond. All the other individuals have already headed north, making this one quite the unhurried bird.

The flock of Oriental Pratincoles is constantly turning over, with numbers going up and down.

An Eastern Yellow Wagtail now fully in summer plumage.

A Pacific Golden Plover transitioning into summer plumage as well.

A Ruddy Kingfisher — presumably a male — with a Crested tree lizard it has caught.

The Crested tree lizard is biting the Ruddy Kingfisher at the throat in a last act of resistance.

Despite its efforts, the Crested tree lizard has been swallowed by the Ruddy Kingfisher — the tail is still visible at the tip of the bill.

A female Ruddy Kingfisher.

A male Ruddy Kingfisher.

Paired with the individual above.