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

A Javan Pond Heron in winter plumage — subtle. The vertical streaking from the neck to the breast looks thinner than on Chinese Pond Heron.

It was catching small insects.

A Little Egret foraging nearby. Standing next to the Javan Pond Heron, it looks large.

Black-winged Stilt, first-winter.

Also first-winter. It appeared to be missing its left foot and was stumbling when trying to feed.

A juvenile Ruddy Kingfisher that had caught a spotted cricket. It had plunged into a Chuetsu palm thicket to take it.

An adult Ruddy Kingfisher beginning its moult into winter plumage. The moult is starting around the face.

This individual has a darkened bill. The flight feathers and tail are worn to tatters, right down to the shafts.

It was hunting exclusively in low spots just a few tens of centimetres above the ground.

The claws are also visibly darkened. I wonder what condition it will be in at its wintering grounds.

I went along the forest road looking for Emerald Doves — there were about three, but they were all distant or hidden deep in the scrub with branches and leaves in the way. The usual Crested Serpent Eagle was perched at ease in a Chinaberry tree, waiting for prey.

A chick receiving food bill-to-bill from a parent. Another chick's bill is jabbed into the back of the feeding chick's head… ^^;

The well-grown chicks beg from the parent with such intensity that the parent is desperately trying to dodge being stabbed by their bills.

The flight feathers and other wing feathers still have a lot of growing to do.

When a crow passed over the nest, it struck a threat pose.

The other chick.

It was so hot that it kept its bill slightly open the whole time.

Purple Heron siblings. They were moving along the branches near the nest.

A Purple Heron chick regurgitating a pellet.

A Grey Wagtail that caught a small insect. The yellow on the undertail-coverts is vivid — first-summer plumage, perhaps.

The first Grey Wagtail of the season arrived right after the typhoon.

Waders seem to be turning over day by day. Wood Sandpiper is the most numerous.

A Crested Serpent Eagle that has finished breeding. A juvenile is also showing up nearby.