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

A Collared Kingfisher in flight, showing its beautiful wings.

A Collared Kingfisher scanning for prey from its lookout perch.

It came back to the lookout with a large crab.

A Collared Kingfisher perched on a piece of driftwood sticking up from the ground — a favourite spot. Perhaps an adult still retaining much of its breeding plumage.

A Common Kingfisher, noticeably smaller, also showed up — hunting for prey from a discarded bicycle.

A juvenile Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo. It seemed to be using the drainage channel running behind some houses, but was chased off by a Brown-eared Bulbul and flew away somewhere.

Common Mynas were everywhere.

Large flocks of Light-vented Bulbuls along the coast. A migration movement, perhaps?

A first-winter female Narcissus Flycatcher. About three individuals present.

From this angle it's easy to see this is a Narcissus Flycatcher rather than a Ryukyu Flycatcher.

A Rustic Bunting foraging on the road. It looked to have just arrived on migration — even with cars and motorbikes passing, it didn't flush, just kept desperately pecking at seeds of some kind.

Also Rustic Buntings. Several small groups were noted.

Three Yellow Buntings found in the southern part of the island. Scarce on Okinawa.

Multiple Grey-streaked Flycatchers as well. November, but migration appears to be still ongoing.

At Agari-zaki, a Buff-bellied Pipit among a flock of Eastern Yellow Wagtails.

A noticeably slender-looking Buff-bellied Pipit. Perhaps it burned through all its fat reserves on migration.

Daurian Redstarts were present in good numbers — I could hear their calls throughout.

A small group of Northern Lapwings resting in a field. They looked tired.

An adult Eastern Buzzard. Several Common Buzzards also present. Other raptors noted: Grey-faced Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Osprey, and Peregrine Falcon.

A lone Tufted Duck at Kubura Mitou.

A Black Drongo perched on a branch right in front of me.

This individual is a juvenile, so it has white spots from the breast down to the undertail coverts.

White spots are present on the underwing as well. From past records, Black Drongo apparently retain white spots on the underwing at least through the first-summer plumage of the year following hatching.

A dancing flock of 11 Pied Avocets. The monochrome Pied Avocets and the ash-grey sea under overcast skies together create an atmosphere of quiet austerity.

A flock of Pied Avocets circling overhead. Nine adults and two juveniles.

A Pied Avocet with Iriomote Island in the background. I had a feeling something like a certain catharsis washed over me.

Pied Avocets are a familiar sight on Ishigaki and Okinawa, but a flock makes them all the more striking.

Apparently they came in off the sea and landed on this beach around 4 p.m.

A Black-winged Kite locking onto prey.

A Black-winged Kite diving steeply toward a patch of grass.

The hunt appears to have been successful — it has a mouse in its talons.

The Black Rat, with a vacant expression, is already dead.

The Black-winged Kite carrying its prey vertically to minimize air resistance.

It returned to the telephone wire and began eating the prey.

From a distance I could make out the bird being relieved of its prey by a juvenile (right).

The Black-winged Kite here appears every day, morning and evening, catching rats. It is a relatively unwary individual even by Ishigaki Island standards — it does not flush when a car passes beneath it.

Even from a distance, the whitish underparts from breast to belly are conspicuous.

Adult Black-faced Spoonbill.

Black-faced Spoonbill from a different area.

Five Northern Lapwings arrived. As in previous years, all were juveniles.

A juvenile Garganey that stayed like this until the end.

Common Teal also wintering here. Adult female, non-breeding plumage.

A single adult female Northern Pintail, non-breeding plumage.

The Eurasian Wigeon also arrived alone and was associating with Spot-billed Ducks.

Juvenile female Northern Shoveler.

Male Northern Shoveler, moulting from eclipse into breeding plumage.

A juvenile Pacific Golden Plover on its own.

Black-winged Stilt, first-winter plumage.

Adult male Black-winged Stilt.

Common Greenshank, first-winter plumage.

Dunlin are scarce in Okinawa, but this season a flock of up to 20 has been present.

Long-toed Stint numbers have dropped off considerably.

Green Sandpiper, always on its own.

All the snipe have turned out to be Common Snipe.

Common Snipe are around here and there, like this.

The wintering Grey Herons have been increasing too.