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

Pied Avocet, first-summer plumage.

I thought the two were feeding contentedly side by side, but occasional squabbles broke out.

Pied Avocet and Black-winged Stilt. Both in first-summer plumage.

There was one Greater Sand Plover among a flock of Lesser Sand Plovers.

A dozen or so Pacific Golden Plovers are also staying. Non-breeding individuals, perhaps?

Lesser Sand Plovers seem to be present year-round, with numbers fluctuating.

Grey-tailed Tattler, first-summer plumage.

Ryukyu Swallows perched on driftwood. A few would occasionally come down onto the sandy beach.

A White-capped Noddy incubating.

A Roseate Tern colony. Until recently there were Black-naped Terns here, but it seems they were driven off. The Black-naped Tern flock had moved to another reef.

Large-billed Tern, breeding plumage. It was high tide, so I couldn't observe the species' distinctive foraging behaviour.

A Whiskered Tern over the sea.

A Little Tern pair. They had two juveniles with them.

A pair of Black-naped Terns came to bathe.

A Roseate Tern also came to bathe.

A Large-billed Tern flying about.

A juvenile Little Tern. It was already able to catch food on its own.

Two Chinese Egrets standing at the river mouth.

A Chinese Egret on the shore a little apart from the two above. It appeared to have injured one leg.

It seemed to be targeting a school of small fish.

When the tide came in, it was resting on a reef away from the shore.

The white morph of Pacific Reef Heron, which is sometimes mistaken for a Chinese Egret.