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

The dark-morph Grey-faced Buzzard these days perches like this in the middle of the sugarcane fields. Whether it always uses the same cane I'm not sure, but the tip had collapsed and seemed to make for an easy perch.

This one perches in the hedge along the boundary between fields.

This sugarcane must also get used as a perch regularly — the leaves at the tip are flattened.

It took off, spooked by a farm truck.

Daurian Redstart. The male was my first of the season. A very wary individual.

A Red-breasted Flycatcher perched on one of its favourite roosts.

The forest fairy landed on a branch right in front of me.

The Red-breasted Flycatcher seems to prefer dim surroundings and rarely ventures into sunny spots.

It would perch on a branch, fix its gaze on the ground, and wait for small insects and the like.

A Red-breasted Flycatcher subsinging. The throat is puffed out.

It moved out into an open area and appeared noticeably tense.

From the foreground: Ferruginous Duck × Common Pochard hybrid, Greater Scaup, Common Pochard.

A Greater Scaup flapping its wings.

It came quite close to me.

Comparing the Greater Scaup (second from left) with the Common Pochard (left), the size difference is quite noticeable. The back is brighter than the Common Pochard's.

Common Goldeneye, female.

This Common Goldeneye has some white mixed into its head — partial leucism, perhaps?

Eurasian Oystercatcher in flight.

Common Shelduck in flight.

Black-faced Spoonbill in flight. Black-faced Spoonbills are present year-round in Okinawa, so I've grown tired of seeing them — but perhaps the Okinawa birds also pass through Wajiro tidal flat.

American Wigeon × Eurasian Wigeon hybrid. The two birds drinking water are the hybrids.

Falcated Duck, male.

Early in the morning, most of the Eurasian Oystercatchers were asleep.

From around 9 a.m. they started to wake up. There's one odd one mixed in. Well, the colouring is close enough… ^^

When the sun came out, they began preening.

One individual that still wouldn't take its bill out from between its feathers — perhaps still cold.

Awake now. The beauty of the Eurasian Oystercatcher really only shows when the sun hits them.

A stretch before taking flight. It showed off the wing pattern.

The flock searched for food on the tidal flat.

A Eurasian Oystercatcher skilfully pecking at what appears to be a bivalve and extracting the contents.

The culprit who flushed the tidal flat birds.

Temminck's Stint, winter plumage.

Temminck's Stint. First-winter?

Temminck's Stint, winter plumage. It had a sweet little trilling call.

Common Sandpiper first-winter plumage?

A Common Snipe looking cold in strong wind.

Two Common Snipe in the grass.

Little Ringed Plover in winter plumage. It was finding food with impressive high-speed steps.