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

Common Redshank moulting into summer plumage.

Common Greenshank in almost full summer plumage. It was a small individual.

Male Black-winged Stilt in summer plumage.

Female Black-winged Stilt in summer plumage.

Grey-tailed Tattler in summer plumage.

Male Ruddy Kingfisher.

Female Ruddy Kingfisher. Paired with the individual above. The white feathering around the ear area is the distinguishing mark of this bird.

The female individual above caught a Sakishima grass lizard.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in splendid male plumage.

A Ruddy Kingfisher holding territory at the entrance to a forest track. Sex unknown.

A Ruddy Kingfisher perched high in a Giran strangler fig. Probably female.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in the park. Female. A parent and child were playing badminton nearby, but the bird didn't seem to mind much.

A Ruddy Kingfisher from the neighbourhood. Sex unknown. One of a pair that has already begun excavating a nest hole.

Female Ryukyu Sparrowhawk. She is gripping a small bird in her talons, delivered by the male.

In males, the eye colour differs considerably between Japanese Sparrowhawk and Ryukyu Sparrowhawk, but in females the difference is hard to tell. If anything, I get the impression that the rufous tones in the chest markings are slightly more brownish in Ryukyu Sparrowhawk than in Japanese Sparrowhawk.

Three Black-faced Spoonbills are staying in the area, including this young individual.

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.

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.