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

Chinese Pond Heron, winter plumage.

A Chinese Pond Heron that was right beside the individual above.

A Chinese Pond Heron predating a woodpecker.

With multiple individuals present, it becomes hard to tell which is which. ^^;

This one was wandering around a paddled rice field.

A Purple Heron in breeding plumage. Some of the earlier individuals were already carrying nest material.

A Cattle Egret that caught a Sakishima brown frog. The frog was letting out a rather plaintive call.

A Japanese Night Heron transitioning from juvenile to adult plumage. This individual was hatched last year.

I checked several rice paddies, but the only snipe I found was this single Common Snipe.

Eurasian Hoopoes at the reliable spot. There appeared to be around four of them.

A Rosy Starling mid-moult.

White-shouldered Starlings gathering in ironwood trees.

This one was probing its bill into gaps between the leaves of Calophyllum inophyllum. Looking for insects, perhaps.

Twenty to forty of them show up at my workplace car park almost every day — quite lively.

A White's Thrush that paid no attention to me whatsoever. It even treated me to a spot of the tiger dance.

It was flipping over fallen leaves and eating earthworms and the like.

Japanese Bush Warblers, whose presence I often notice first by their call notes, are now at high density. The Korean Bush Warblers, on the other hand, have disappeared almost entirely.

It was moving busily through the undergrowth.

Pale Thrushes sometimes turn up mixed in with flocks of White-cheeked Starlings.

Little Buntings, which I also often notice first by their call notes. Wintering numbers are decent enough, but they're difficult to photograph.

Little Buntings, always tucked away in the grass.

I've been encountering Red-throated Pipits in larger flocks more often too. Some individuals in summer plumage are visible among them.

A Siberian Stonechat that wintered here. Individuals wintering on Ishigaki Island are few.

Wintering Brown Shrikes are everywhere. Around this time of year their moult tends to accelerate rapidly.