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

A Collared Pratincole chick that cannot yet fly, being fed by one of the parents.

This one is a juvenile that has already learned to fly. It was moving through the air almost as well as the adults.

A Collared Pratincole bringing food to the chick.

Watching them fly around against a backdrop of sugarcane fields feels very much like Ishigaki Island.

A male Ryukyu Sparrowhawk. It appeared to be targeting a recently fledged House Sparrow.

One of three Emerald Doves that appear in the neighborhood.

Just after 7 p.m., I came home to find a Ruddy Kingfisher holding a freshly emerged Cryptotympana facialis cicada in its bill. At this time of day on Ishigaki Island it is still quite bright.

Same individual as above. The female appeared to be bringing food to the nest. For a moment an Emerald Dove perched on the same branch, but unfortunately I couldn't get a shot.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl keeping watch. We've known each other long enough that it shows no wariness toward me at all.

The female is incubating, the male standing watch — a pair of Ryukyu Scops Owls. They took over the tree hollow where a Brown Hawk-Owl had nested last year… ^^;

I heard crows making a racket at the Brown Hawk-Owl's nesting site and went to look — it was a stand-off with a Japanese Sparrowhawk. The Brown Hawk-Owl was keeping very still, clearly rattled.

The Brown Hawk-Owl will attack crows, but when a Japanese Sparrowhawk shows up it doesn't fight back at all. It seems to know exactly how dangerous the sparrowhawk is.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in the park. It appeared to be eyeing prey on the lawn.

Also a Ruddy Kingfisher in the park. Two pairs are breeding adjacent to each other in this area, and occasionally there were scenes of three birds chasing one another.

A pair of Black-naped Terns. The female (right) kept looking down at her belly. Egg-laying seems to be imminent.

A Ruddy Kingfisher in the shade of a tree at a ranch. After taking prey, it flew right over my head and off into the forest.

A Brown Hawk-Owl that nests in this busy spot every year. It looks like the young will be fledging soon.

Oriental Pratincoles, presumably breeding somewhere on the island, came to a rice paddy.

The Black-naped Terns that had been offshore have arrived at the coastal rocks. Breeding is about to begin.

A male Emerald Dove. It was eating fallen Macaranga fruit on the footpath.

A female Emerald Dove. Also feeding on fallen Macaranga fruit. It was also drinking water that had collected in a roadside ditch.

I found a Ryukyu Scops Owl sitting motionless in the forest in the rain. A Brown Hawk-Owl was incubating right nearby. I wonder if there's no conflict between them.

A Ruddy Kingfisher appeared in the sugarcane field. After catching prey it didn't eat on the spot — it carried it off. The chicks may have hatched.

A Ryukyu Scops Owl incubating just a stone's throw from my house. This is the male on watch. This makes three consecutive breeding seasons here.

A Brown Hawk-Owl also incubating. This is the male on guard duty. It raises its young in the same tree hollow every year.

A Japanese Paradise Flycatcher with its nest built on a Thespesia populnea branch. On Ishigaki Island they also nest in Macaranga tanarius, Rhizophora stylosa, Barringtonia racemosa, and various vines, in addition to Thespesia populnea.