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

A male Japanese Sparrowhawk. This is a young bird hatched last year.

This is the female — also a young bird. This year I have been observing a young pair nesting at another site as well. Do Japanese Sparrowhawks pair up with other young individuals?

This is the nest of that pair. Unusually, they built it in a Terminalia catappa.

A male Japanese Sparrowhawk that came down to the ground to sunbathe and air its feathers.

Airing its feathers.

You can see that it is in the process of moulting into adult plumage.

A female Japanese Sparrowhawk. This one is also in the process of moulting into adult plumage.

A mixed flock of Black-naped Terns and Roseate Terns. About eighty percent were Black-naped Terns.

Black-naped Terns and Roseate Terns inside the fishing harbour as well.

Black-naped Terns. The Roseate Terns didn't fly very close.

A male Ryukyu Green Pigeon keeping watch in front of the nest.

The male's tail feathers and part of the female's face are visible through a tiny gap in the leaves. Ryukyu Green Pigeons always build their nests deep inside dense foliage.

A male Ryukyu Green Pigeon sitting on the nest.

The female that had flown out from the nest returned safely and resumed incubation. A relief.

I was shooting from behind cover, and in moments like this the "soft continuous shooting" mode that quiets the shutter sound came in handy. The Brown Hawk-Owl noticed nothing of my presence and went straight into the nest. ^^

A male Brown Hawk-Owl. He is on alert — slimming his body and turning side-on. ^^;

This is a Brown Hawk-Owl photographed at a different location four days ago. Incubation has already begun.

Nearby I found a Oriental Turtle Dove that had fledged some time ago.

A female Japanese Sparrowhawk carrying pine needles as nesting material.

A female Japanese Sparrowhawk calling in a food-begging call to summon the male. The male did appear, but only for an instant — not long enough to get a shot.

A young male Japanese Sparrowhawk from a different location, photographed four days ago.

The female paired with the male above. In the upper right of the photo, a bill and nose are visible from the shadow of the nest. Photographed four days ago. It looks like incubation has already begun.

There was a crow's nest nearby. Every time a person walked along the path below, it was tearing off ironwood leaves. It looked quite agitated.