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

A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. It shows so little wariness that I worry about feral cat predation.

It passed right by me.

A Common Moorhen and a Slaty-legged Crake. It felt smaller than the moorhen and larger than a Common Snipe.

A Slaty-legged Crake preening. It is quite wary, but if you wait, you can see it.

This season I am seeing Little Buntings everywhere, too many to count.

A Red-throated Pipit is also wintering here.

Among the wagtails, White Wagtail may be the least common. The most numerous is, of course, Eastern Yellow Wagtail.

A good number of Dusky Thrushes seemed to pass through in November, but come January they started appearing again.

A male Falcated Duck in mid-moult from juvenile to first-breeding plumage. Looking pretty ragged. ^^;

The Greater White-fronted Geese that have been present for two months now total 25 birds — adults and juveniles combined.

A Tundra Bean Goose that joined the flock of Greater White-fronted Geese above. It was occasionally getting told off by the White-fronts.

A lone Tundra Bean Goose at a different location. I hid behind cover to photograph it, but it was already on alert.

Okinawa Rail in winter plumage. It was moving in and out of the grass. At first glance it looks plain, but on a closer look it wears an extraordinarily beautiful plumage.

Same individual as above. When crossing the paddies it was wading chest-deep through the water.

Multiple Common Snipe are also overwintering.

A Eurasian Hoopoe resting on a branch. It was completely relaxed and stayed like that for a long time.

This is how it looked at first. Perhaps it had just arrived on migration — it would occasionally close its eyes and doze off. It seemed tired.

A Malayan Night Heron busy foraging at the forest edge. A beautiful individual.

On Ishigaki Island, White-browed Wagtails may actually outnumber White Wagtails. They certainly catch the eye.

More Daurian Redstarts overwintering this season than usual.

The dark-morph Gray-faced Buzzard, now in its fourth year. No matter how many times I see a dark morph, it looks magnificent.

The Gray-faced Buzzard's front-facing expression is adorable. ^^

Crested Serpent Eagle juvenile. It didn't seem to be catching much prey.

Common Kestrel, male, first-winter plumage.

Peregrine Falcon juvenile. It was at the Black-winged Kite nesting site near my home. The Black-winged Kites that should have been breeding were nowhere to be seen.