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

A dark-morph Grey-faced Buzzard harassed by two crows. Called a black buzzard, but compared to the crows it doesn't look that dark.

I have a feeling it looks more striking than it did last year when it was still a juvenile.

In the morning it was tucked away somewhere like this, and I had a hard time finding it.

That blackness actually makes it surprisingly hard to spot compared with a normal Grey-faced Buzzard.

Siberian Stonechat, which often came down to the field path because of the strong wind.

Tufted Duck, male eclipse.

Tufted Duck, female in winter plumage.

Northern Shoveler, male. Moulting from eclipse into breeding plumage.

Northern Shoveler, female juvenile.

Northern Pintail, female non-breeding (right) and male juvenile.

The Great Reed Warbler normally stays stubbornly hidden in the sugarcane fields and undergrowth, but the timing coincided with a break in the rain and it briefly came out into the open where I could see it well.

Same individual as above. It appeared to be drying its rain-soaked feathers.

This one pushed the bird above off its perch, so it is the same leaf but a different Great Reed Warbler. It looks even more heavily washed with brown.

More than ten Red-throated Pipits had come down into the recently harvested paddy. A Rosy Starling and a Pale-backed Pigeon were also mixed in among the flock of Oriental Turtle Doves in the same field.

My son can now tell several species apart. Birdwatching with him — a fan of the picture books Tsubame Kōkū, Poppo Kōkū and Karugamo Yūranssen (all by Keiji Motoyasu) — is a real pleasure.

The Black-winged Kite at this spot is a fairly approachable individual, so I was able to observe it at close range. ^^

Those bright red eyes of the Black-winged Kite are a real draw for birdwatchers. ^^

A Crested Serpent Eagle came to a paddy field where rice harvesting was under way.

Common Kestrel, adult female.

It was scanning for prey from the field berm.

Caspian Tern, adult winter plumage. Some of the primaries still retain summer plumage.

It looked like it was about to cough up a pellet, but never did.

Spreading the wings shows the moult clearly. Mostly winter plumage, but a few primaries are still in summer plumage.

In the evening light it was dark, and for a moment a juvenile White-winged Tern gave me a start.

It looked to me like a juvenile Black Tern — but maybe not.