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

Female juvenile Ferruginous Duck.

Male Eurasian Wigeon in breeding plumage.

Male Gadwall in breeding plumage and female in non-breeding plumage.

Female Northern Shoveler in non-breeding plumage.

Same individual as above. It gave me a nice view of its beautiful wing coverts.

Eurasian Curlew, first-winter plumage.

Four Eurasian Curlews arrived. All were juveniles.

A Grey-lag Goose — a first record for me, seen on New Year's Eve. I think it's an adult, but I'm not sure.

All five were moving around together in a tight group. Against the harsh backlight the glare off the water was so intense that to the naked eye they were just silhouettes… I thought my eyes would give out.

An individual believed to be a male Ryukyu Scops Owl. It did sing for me, but when it called it was deep in the forest, so I couldn't get video. I did manage an audio recording. ^^

Same individual as above. No matter how many times I see one, a Ryukyu Scops Owl always gets my pulse up.

An Okinawa Rail roosting in a Ryukyu pine. This was a find in an area where I had never seen one before.

A different individual near the one above. Perhaps they are a pair.

A Eurasian Woodcock foraging in the grass.

A Spot-billed Duck hybrid — probably a Spot-billed Duck × Mallard cross.

First-winter Black-tailed Gull. This is only the second time I've seen a young Black-tailed Gull in Okinawa. A genuine rarity here.

Whenever a Great Cormorant surfaced with a fish in its bill, the Black-tailed Gull would try to steal it.

It landed nearby. It was bathing.

A Black-tailed Gull scattering Northern Pintails and Eurasian Wigeons. I noticed in the photo that an American Wigeon was in the frame right beside the Black-tailed Gull. ^^;

There were lots of Common Snipe in the sweet-potato fields. Same scene as the rice paddies on Ishigaki Island.

This individual was banded S39 in South Korea in 2013. A veteran in its eighth year.

White-shouldered Starling. The top bird is male; the two below are female.

Little Bunting, arriving in good numbers this season.

In the rain, it had come down to the ground and was sitting still.

A Yellow-browed Warbler foraging as it moves busily from branch to branch.

What is the prey? It's too small to tell clearly, but it looked like it was eating some kind of insect, perhaps aphids.

It becomes camouflaged when it moves into the leucaena leaves.

In the undergrowth, a Japanese Bush Warbler. It was having a hard time swallowing a stick insect.

I think several subspecies of Japanese Bush Warbler are visiting, including Sakhalin Bush Warbler and Korean Bush Warbler. Is this one just a plain Japanese Bush Warbler?

Female Daurian Redstart. It seems females are the majority of the Daurian Redstarts remaining on Ishigaki Island.

A long-staying Javan Pond Heron. On alert for a Peregrine Falcon.

Also a long-staying Chinese Pond Heron.

Spotted Redshank, first-winter. I'd love for it to stay until it turns black.

Common Redshank, first-winter.

More than ten Common Snipe in the same paddy field.

Dunlin in a flock of eight.

A Crested Serpent Eagle pouncing on prey.

A Crested Serpent Eagle flying low toward its prey.

The pair of the individual above.

The Crested Serpent Eagle breeding season has begun, and activity is picking up. Their calls are audible back and forth all around.

Crested Serpent Eagle, juvenile. The 16th individual this season.

Purple Heron, juvenile. This one was feisty enough to drive off an adult.

Javan Pond Heron, adult. This individual was still a juvenile up until last year, so it is in its second year.