Japan in winter 2025: Steller’s Sea-Eagles, Blakiston’s Fish Owl and Red-crowned Cranes

A Tropical Birding Tours SET DEPARTURE Birding Tour

Trip Report and final Checklist: JAPAN: Birding on Ice

January 19th to February 1st, 2025 Pre-tour ext: 13-18 Jan; post-tour ext: 1-2 Feb

Guides for this tour were Charley Hesse and Andrés Vásquez. Report of main tour and post-tour extension by ANDRES VASQUEZ N.

Report of pre-tour extension by CHARLEY HESSE

INTRODUCTION: There are various reasons why this tour is one of the most popular tours we run around the World to the point it is almost fully booked for the next year already. The fact is that it offers on “the menu’s main course dishes” some of the World’s most iconic birds like Steller’s Sea-eagle, Blakiston’s Fish-Owl, and Red- Crowned Cranes, “as appetizers” 12.000+ individuals of four other species of cranes and over 30 species of waterfowl, and finally “as desert”, various Japanese endemics like Copper Pheasant, being the cherry on the cake the cute Japanese Macaques (AKA Snow Monkeys) on their hot spring pools. We were delighted with sightings of all these species mentioned above.

The landscape backdrop for this tour is also remarkable and breathtaking at times. We visited gorgeous snow covered valleys and fields, manicured Japanese gardens and idyllic forests in search of these birds. Finally, the famous cultural richness of this country is really impossible to truly understand and describe unless you visit and immerse yourself in interactions with the beautiful people of this country or with their modern mechanisms like ordering food from undecipherable touch screen menus that send a robot delivering your food or with automated toilets that talk to you and provide music, running-water sounds to hide your sounds, and various options of deeper cleaning.

In few words, the combination of all these factors made this tour an unforgettable experience for all the participants. As guides, we were also very happy that everything ran smoothly and that we did not have major disruptions on the tour due to climate except for a minor adjustment that needed to be done the last day of the tour due to quite rough seas. Even in Hokkaido, the coldest of the birding sites, the temperatures were relatively mild, with no blizzards or extreme cold.

Happily, it all went great!!!

Follow this link to the eBird trip report generated for this tour as well: https://ebird.org/tripreport/319699

NARRATIVE: There are not too many birds at these latitudes during the core of the winter time in Japan but the ones present are very special. Those are, however, scattered along the elongated and narrow territory of Japan that extends in latitude quite a stretch. This means that we required some internal flights to reach the birding sites that hold these special species. We started with our Ryukyu pre-tour extension (5nights) that took us to Okinawa and Amami, we continued with the main tour and birded in three of the four biggest islands of the country, Honshu, Hokkaido, and Kyushu. Each of them are noticeably different both in bird life and weather/habitat. A very short but quite productive post-tour extension took place as well on a ferry to Miyake Island, a very small island just south of Tokyo where some great pelagic species made the journey quite worth the prolonged ferry ride we had.

This trip report narrates our adventure along the two extensions and the main tour but not on a day by day basis; instead we are describing our birding done by island.

RYUKYU (pre-tour extension): The Our Ryukyu Extension provided an incredible opportunity to explore the unique birdlife of Japan’s subtropical islands. The Ryukyu archipelago, with its distinct cultural and ecological heritage, delivered an exciting mix of rare endemics, dramatic landscapes, and thrilling nocturnal encounters.

We began on Okinawa, where the lush forests of the Yanbaru region were our primary focus. Our efforts paid off with excellent sightings of the rare Okinawa Rail, a species only discovered in 1981, and the striking Okinawa Woodpecker. Other highlights included Okinawa Robin and Black Wood-Pigeon, while night birding rewarded us with views of Japanese and Elegant Scops-Owls.

From Okinawa, we flew to Amami-Oshima, a beautiful island covered in dense, ancient forests. The deep, resonant calls of Lidth’s Jay echoed through the trees, and we had multiple encounters with the Amami Woodcock, an elusive nocturnal species. The potential future splits of Owston’s Woodpecker and Amami Thrush also made an appearance. Night excursions were particularly memorable, as we not only found Ryukyu Scops-Owl but also spotted the Amami Black Rabbit, a rare and primitive mammal unique to the island.

Throughout the extension, coastal and wetland birding added diversity to our list. Stops at tidal flats and estuaries yielded Black-faced Spoonbill, Saunders’s Gull, and a variety of waders, while the ocean produced sightings of Pacific Reef-Heron and Japanese Cormorant.

By the end of our time in the Ryukyus, we had recorded 89 species, including a fantastic array of island endemics. This pre-tour extension provided an exciting contrast to the winter landscapes of mainland Japan, setting the perfect tone for the rest of our Japanese birding adventure.

MAIN TOUR HONSHU: The biggest island of the Japan archipelago is home to the biggest city in the world, Tokyo. We spent four nights in two different towns in this island, Karuizawa and Komatsu where we birded around the main hotspots of the Japanese Alps and the western central coast. We started our tour right in the outskirts of this huge metropolis, meeting the group on our hotel located next to the main international airport in Narita.

We had some great birding en-route to Karuizawa, our first destination of the tour. We visited Lake Imbanuma and Sakatagaike Park targeting particularly good views of one highly desired species of duck that is high on the list of all the visitor to these lands, the gorgeous Baikal Teal, which had been reported by the thousands in this lake but we only got satisfactory close up views once we got to the Sakatagaike where only a handful of individuals of that teal were hanging with various other species of waterfowl on a much smaller pond in the middle of the park. Other species of waterfowl mentioned as favorites for this morning were Smew and Falcated Duck but present together with these were also Commom Pochard, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, and Mallard.

Apart from waterfowl, we also found other nice birds like the scarce Brown-headed Thrush and Eurasian Wryneck plus we got the first views of various other common and more widely distributed species like Carrion and Large-billed Crows, Masked, Rustic, and Meadow Buntings, plus a gorgeous female Eastern Marsh Harried that flew by quite close.

We had to cover some ground in order to climb up to some extent the Japanese Alps where Karuizawa is located and so we drove for a couple hours. Only when we reached quite close this small city, we managed to do some birding along the steep slopes of the hilly terrain surrounding Karuizawa. Just minutes after starting birding we found another important target, the near endemic Japanese Accentor and the widespread Eurasian Wren.

It was getting late and dark but we had to give a try for sure for one of the most important targets of this area, the endemic Copper Pheasant which is very easy to miss and only gets seen less than half of the times we visit these areas. We got very lucky when one of the participants scanning with a thermal scope picked up a weird hot shape on a forested slope; at the beginning it was unclear if it was a squirrel on a tree (with thermal scopes the depth of field is very hard to measure) but after deeper search we managed to spot with our bins the super cryptic figure of this female quite high on the slope.

We then had a full day to explore the areas near Karuizawa and the small city of Saku. Initially we headed for the woodlands along the edge of Wild Bird Sanctuary and the small Nakagura Park where we found some key targets like Japanese Woodpecker, Brown Dipper, and Long-tailed Rosefinch together with a few more common (but still new for the trip) species including Coal Tit, Eurasian Jay, and Eurasian Nuthatch.

Next stop was the fields below Karuizawa where we specifically targeted the sought after Green Pheasant which initially gave us grief but at the end we ended up seeing various individuals. The backdrop for the birding in this spot is quite astonishing with the gorgeous Asama Volcano.

After a very tasty lunch in Saku we headed in search of two other targets along the Chikuma River. A small regulating pond next to the river course always holds various species of waterfowl and in this case, we got amazing views at various males of Smew, a few Common Merganser, a couple Tufted Ducks and a handful of other species of ducks. The main targets were seen towards the end of our visit, foraging along the rocky islands in the middle of the river. First we got a pair of Japanese Wagtails and not too long after, we found three Long- billed Plovers; we got nice scope views of both.

The next day was one of those weird days on a birding trip when you have an amazing time, the whole group finishes the day very happy but still only a couple species get added to the list of the tour. This was thanks to the visit to the famed Jigokudani Park where we got amazing scenery and some close up views at the famous Japanese Macaques on the iconic hot spring pool of the park. This visit is memorable thanks not only to the picturesque scenes with various dozens of these so called Snow Monkeys, but also thanks to the refreshing walk into the park which cuts through idyllic pine forests painted all in white thanks to magical looking snow hills. It is a treat to the soul.

After this park, we did a drive which regularly is difficult and stressing for the guides since the weather conditions normally are adverse and even nasty with rain, wind, and snow. Wonderfully, we did not have to face neither of these circumstances this year and we sailed nicely that afternoon.

Our last birding region was on the central west coast of Honshu; we used Komatsu as our hub to explore sites in Awara and Kaga areas. We started by scanning some rice fields in search of geese and lapwings but the only new birds we managed to add were Rook and a single Rough-legged Hawk.

We moved later toward the coast line scanning some estuaries, river mouths, and adjacent ocean waters. By doing so, we added plenty new birds for us including Slaty-backed, Common, and Black-tailed Gulls, Japanese and Pelagic Cormorants, Gadwall, Eared Grebe, a pair of Peregrine Falcons and a couple of Blue Rock-Thrushes.

No visit to this corner of Japan is complete without a stop at Katano Kamoike in Kaga where a rich wetland is the winter area of over 5000 Baikal Teal, hundreds of Taiga and a few Tundra Bean-Geese, over a dozen Greater White-fronted Goose, and a host of various other species of waterfowl that almost fill up the large lagoon located right in front of the observation center. We had a blast here and it was a perfect way to say goodbye to Honshu. Our next stop after a very easy going internal flight was going to be the cold Hokkaido.

gorgeous Red Fox (photo above by Andrés) a few times in this island

HOKKAIDO: The icy Hokkaido is the northern most of the four big islands of Japan and it is home (winter home in some cases) of arguably the most wanted species of any tour to Japan. Here we visited three main birding areas, the vicinities of Nemuro and Rausu, plus the east interior of the island.

The coastal areas and woodlands around Nemuro were very productive and very generous with our group and despite some bad weather (drizzle, rain, and some wind), we managed to get tons of good things that were new for the tour. We visited various harbors, ports and sea watching viewpoints in search of alcids, ducks and gulls and those did not disappoint. We found here our first Harlequin and Long-tailed Ducks, Black Scoter, Red- necked and Horned Grebes, Glaucous and Glaucous-winged Gulls, a couple distant Common Murre and Spectacled Guillermots, the rare Red-faced Cormorant, and two interesting records: a female Canvasback and a group of very distant dark Shearwaters that were impossible to distinguish but at this time of the year no species of shearwater have been recorded in Nemuro.

A bit west of this city, we birded some woodland areas and Furen Lake where we saw, mainly distantly, our first Red-crowned Cranes, Whooper Swans, White-tailed Eagles, and Steller’s Sea-Eagles; we subsequently saw all these at extremely close range two days later. We also found some smaller birds including Marsh Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch, and Coal Tit.

We moved towards the northern town of Rausu and on the way we birded along the Nontsuke Peninsula in search of the most wanted duck of this part of the tour, the fairly recently split Stejneger’s Scoter which we got very well but only after a good effort battling some snow and wind. We also found some flocks of Asian Rosy- Finches and a couple Red-throated Loons.

Finally, we made it into Rausu for one of the most exciting nights on the life of a birder. The reason, the biggest of all the owls of the World, the massive Blakiston's Fish-Owl, which has a feeding spot reserved in front of the small lodge we stay at for two nights. The restaurant is positioned overlooking a river that flows from the mountains and the owners aim spotlights all night long at the usual feeding area of the owl.

We basically had to sit on the restaurant area waiting for the owl to show up; the only problem is that the time is uncertain and we are forced to start a vigil as soon it gets dark (which is at 5pm in this area) and the bird can take hours before flying in. We had to wait 3 hours for it and just when we were getting a little tired and impatient, all of the sudden the bird came in and gave us a quick but amazing show. Since we spent two nights here we had to do the same the second night but then we only had an hour of waiting and we were delighted with the visit of two individuals that second time.

The full day we spent in this area was also memorable thanks to a short (both in distance and in time) boat ride that brings in tons of individuals of the striking and massive Steller’s Sea-Eagle. We had an hour and a half of birds in flight photography shooting which was for sure a highlight of the trip since most participants were also very interested in photos. It was very easy to fill up the memory cards here with thousands of pics of this absolutely incredible bird. White-tailed Eagles are also present in big numbers as well as some species of gulls so there are literally hundreds of close distant subjects posing of photos.

Our final day in Hokkaido was not less productive given that we visited one of the now various feeding centers for one of the rarest birds we see in this trip, the delicate Red-crowned Crane. Back in 1952 there were only 33 individuals left in Japan but happily since then, various conservation projects and international agreements have risen the numbers of these beautiful cranes to above 1900 individuals. We spent close to an hour in the afternoon photographing them on an idyllic snow swept field that held 173 individuals according to the official count of the visitor center.

However, this was actually not even the bird of the day, considering we had seen the cranes already before. The best bird of the day was a roosting Ural Owl that cooperated nicely on a staked out site near the crane center. This was actually the last new bird for the trip that we got in Hokkaido and a perfect closure to a cold but heartwarming time in this snowy white island. Next up, Kyushu.

KYUSHU: We left the snow behind and headed towards the southern most of the 4 big Japanese islands. Here we spent four nights in three different towns, Izumi, Kirishima, and Hyuga. Despite Hokkaido being the only home of the famous Tancho (Red-crowned Crane), in my opinion Kyushu is the capital of cranes of Japan since yearly over 12000 individuals of 4 species of cranes visit the rice fields near the city of Izumi creating a true spectacle to witness on a visit to this corner of Japan. A cacophony of sounds burst from the feeding fields at dawn when the person in charge of the feeding leaves the food for the birds. We see literally hundreds of cranes dropping from the skies and approaching the feeding area. Most of these birds were Hooded Cranes but we also saw hundreds of White-naped Cranes and only a handful of Common and Sandhill Cranes.

The fields that attract these elegant birds is also home to many other things that kept us busy in this area. By scanning the open fields, we found a single Black-faced Spoonbill and a pair of Eurasian Spoonbill too, Gray Wagtails and Siberian Pipits were seen repeatedly as well as a couple flocks of Bramblings; we even had a surprising Naumann's Thrush. We moved on and headed towards some reed beds along the Euchi River where we tracked down Chinese Pendiline-Tits, Reed Bunting, Japanese Bush Warbler, and we even managed to pull out of the reeds Brown-cheeked Rail and Ruddy-breasted Crake for everyone on the group to see well. A big flock of corvids included some desired Daurian Jackdaws. Unfortunately for an unlucky Short-eared Owl, the gang of crows flushed it out of the rice fields and then mobbed it in midair in a quite nasty way.

North of Izumi, in Yatsushiro, we targeted and found various Saunder’s Gulls and various shorebirds that were foraging on the exposed sandbanks of the river mudflats. An unexpected Marsh Sandpiper was found together with plenty of other more anticipated species like Kentish Plover, Eurasian Curlew, Common Greenshank, Dunlin, and a few species of waterfowl. There were three raptors in the area too, including a distant Peregrine Falcon, a few Ospreys and a pristine male Hen Harrier that was harassed again by crows.

After this we moved inland towards the southern highlands of Kyushu birding our way up. By doing so, we got a big target for some participants in the shape of the gaudy Mandarin Duck plus a few other targets including the hulking Crested Kingfisher, the striking Japanese Grosbeak, and White-bellied Green-Pigeon which was only seen in flight; here also, Charley was the only one that got to see Ryukyo Minivet.

In these highlands we spent one night in the outskirts of Kirishima National Park and birded the forests surrounding Miike Lake and the beautiful shrine that oversees the lake. We found here a few of our targets for the area including White-backed Woodpecker, Olive-backed Pipit, and the first views of Red-flanked Bluetail together with the attractive but introduced Red-billed Leiothrix plus finally a good male Daurian Redstart to photograph. A couple buntings that we tried hard for, never showed up despite our efforts.

Our main tour was about to end after descending towards the east coast of the island. Sadly, the time here was a little frustrating due to bad weather and lack of cooperation by some targets. We did a short boat ride just off of Hyuga City where we could not find Japanese Murrelets but we found out none of previous tours this year had seen one here either which is a bit concerning. Our redemption however came in perfect timing when on the very last birding site, a stake out that Charley had from previous years, he pulled out a Baer’s Pochard and

a Ferruginous Duck that are very special species for Japan and even globally but happily they had been recurrent in the wetland we visited.

The main part of the tour came to an end after lunch and a subsequent flight back to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from where we were going to link up with our short post-tour extension.

FERRY TO MIYAKEJIMA (post-tour extension): The annoyance of bad weather lingered with us for this extension. We were supposed to take the overnight ferry to this small island located off shore south of Tokyo where we were supposed to land and spend a few hours to search for a few localized endemics that live there. We were following closely the forecast, specially the swell prediction for our time there. The panorama showed that the ferry was going to depart Tokyo and could drop us off on Miyakejima without problems, but it was quite uncertain that it was going to be able to stop back at the island to pick us back up to return to Tokyo.

We needed to make a decision before boarding and we opted for playing it safe and not disembarking in Miyake since neither of the participants wanted to jeopardize their flights back home. We decided to have instead an extended pelagic continuing with the boat further south down to Hachijo and back. It proved to be a good decision since the boat could not stop on one of the other islands in its trajectory due to the swell precisely.

Anyway, the pelagic was a great success despite the rough seas we had to put up with. In terms of mammals we saw Humpback Whales and Striped Dolphins. In terms of birds we saw multiple individuals of all three expected species of Albatross, Black-footed, Laysan and Short-tailed. We also had a group of Tristram’s Storm-Petrels and a couple Brown Boobies. The surprising bird for this year was Providence Petrel, not one or two, we saw a

few dozens of them throughout the ride; it is the first time this bird had been recorded on our tours after 12 times running it.

FINAL CHECKLIST: A total of 197 species of BIRDS were recorded on this tour; only 2 were seen only by the Tour Leader (L). In terms of MAMMALS, we recorded 14 species which.

Status Conservation status

E - Endemic species CR - Critically endangered EAE - East Asian Endemic EN - Endangered NEAE - North-east Asian Endemic VU - Vulverable NE - Near Endemic species NT - Near-threatened BE - Breeding Endemic Essp - Endemic subspecies I - Introduced species

Nots on sightings

Ryk - Seen only on the Ryukyu Extension Pel - Seen only on Pelagic Extension L - Seen by Leader only

After a formal voting session, the selected best birds of the trip were: 1. Blakiston’s Fish-Owl, 2. Steller’s Sea-Eagle, 3. Red-crowned Crane, 4. Ural Owl, and 5. Short-tailed Albatross with special mentions to Copper Pheasent and Baikal Teal.

See the Final List of Birds and Mammals below:

ANSERIFORMES: Anatidae 1 Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons 2 Taiga Bean-Goose Anser fabalis 3 Tundra Bean-Goose Anser serrirostris 4 Tundra Swan (Bewick's) Cygnus columbianus bewickii 5 Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus 6 Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna 7 EAE Mandarin Duck Aix galericulata 8 Baikal Teal Sibirionetta formosa 9 Northern Shoveler Spatula clypeata 10 Gadwall Mareca strepera 11 NT Falcated Duck Mareca falcata 12 Eurasian Wigeon Mareca penelope 13 Eastern Spot-billed Duck Anas zonorhyncha 14 Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 15 Northern Pintail Anas acuta 16 Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) Anas crecca crecca 17 Canvasback Aythya valisineria 18 VU Common Pochard Aythya ferina 19 NT Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca 20 CR Baer's Pochard Aythya baeri 21 Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula

22 Greater Scaup Aythya marila 23 Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus 24 Stejneger's (Siberian) Scoter Melanitta stejnegeri 25 NT Black Scoter Melanitta americana 26 VU Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis 27 Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula 28 Smew Mergellus albellus 29 Common Merganser (Goosander) Mergus merganser 30 Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator GALLIFORMES: Phasianidae 31 NT E Copper Pheasant Syrmaticus soemmerringii 32 E Green Pheasant Phasianus versicolor PODICIPEDIFORMES: Podicipedidae 33 Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis 34 VU Horned (Slavonian) Grebe Podiceps auritus 35 Red-necked Grebe Podiceps grisegena 36 Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus 37 Eared (Black-necked) Grebe Podiceps nigricollis COLUMBIFORMES: Columbidae 38 I Rock (Feral) Pigeon Columba livia 39 NT NEAE Black (Japanese) Wood-Pigeon Columba janthina 40 Oriental Turtle-Dove Streptopelia orientalis

41 White-bellied (Japanese) Green- Pigeon Treron sieboldii 42 Whistling Green-Pigeon Treron formosae GRUIFORMES: Rallidae 43 Brown-cheeked (Eastern Water) Rail Rallus indicus 44 EN E Okinawa Rail Gallirallus okinawae 45 Eurasian (Common) Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 46 Eurasian Coot Fulica atra 47 Ruddy-breasted Crake Zapornia fusca GRUIFORMES: Gruidae 48 Sandhill Crane Antigone canadensis 49 VU White-naped Crane Antigone vipio 50 Common Crane Grus grus 51 VU Hooded Crane Grus monacha 52 EN EAE Red-crowned (Japanese) Crane Grus japonensis CHARADRIIFORMES: Recurvirostridae 53 Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus 54 Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta CHARADRIIFORMES: Charadriidae 55 Black-bellied (Grey) Plover Pluvialis squatarola 56 Pacific Golden-Plover Pluvialis fulva 57 Little Ringed Plover Thinornis dubius 58 Long-billed Plover Thinornis placidus

59 NT Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus 60 Siberian Sand-Plover Anarhynchus mongolus 61 Greater Sand-Plover Anarhynchus leschenaultii 62 Kentish Plover Anarhynchus alexandrinus CHARADRIIFORMES: Scolopacidae 63 NT Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata 64 Eurasian Woodcock Scolopax rusticola 65 E Amami Woodcock Scolopax mira 66 Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago 67 Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 68 Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus 69 Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis 70 Common Redshank Tringa totanus 71 Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia 72 Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres 73 NT Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis 74 Long-toed Stint Calidris subminuta 75 Temmick's Stint Calidris temminckii 76 Dunlin Calidris alpina CHARADRIIFORMES: Alcidae 77 Spectacled Guillemot Cepphus carbo 78 Common Murre (Guillemot) Uria aalge CHARADRIIFORMES: Laridae 79 VU Saunders's Gull Saundersilarus saundersi 80 (Common) Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus 81 Black-tailed Gull Larus crassirostris 82 Common Gull (Kamchatka) Larus canus kamtschatschensis 83 Vega Gull Larus vegae 84 Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus 85 Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens 86 EAE Slaty-backed Gull Larus schistisagus GAVIIFORMES: Gaviidae 87 Red-throated Loon (Diver) Gavia stellata 88 Arctic Loon (Black-throated Diver) Gavia arctica PROCELLARIIFORMES: Diomedeidae 89 NT Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis 90 NT Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes 91 VU BE Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus PROCELLARIIFORMES: Hydrobatidae 92 NT Tristram's Storm-Petrel Hydrobates tristrami PROCELLARIIFORMES: Procellariidae 93 Providence Petrel Pterodroma solandri 94 NT Sooty/Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna grisea/tenuirostris SULIFORMES: Sulidae

95 Brown Booby Sula leucogaster SULIFORMES: Phalacrocoracidae 96 Red-faced Cormorant Urile urile 97 Pelagic Cormorant Urile pelagicus 98 Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo 99 Japanese (Temminck's) Cormorant Phalacrocorax capillatus PELECANIFORMES: Ardeidae 100 Pacific Reef-Heron Egretta sacra 101 Little Egret Egretta garzetta 102 Striated Heron Butorides striata 103 Eastern Cattle-Egret Ardea coromanda 104 Great Egret Ardea alba 105 Medium (Intermediate) Egret Ardea intermedia 106 Gray Heron Ardea cinerea PELECANIFORMES: Threskiornithidae 107 Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia 108 EN EABE Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea minor ACCIPITRIFORMES: Pandionidae 109 Osprey (Eurasian) Pandion haliaetus haliaetus ACCIPITRIFORMES: Accipitridae 110 Japanese Sparrowhawk Tachyspiza gularis 111 Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus 112 Eastern Marsh Harrier Circus spilonotus 113 Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus 114 Black Kite (Black-eared) Milvus migrans lineatus 115 White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla 116 VU EAE Steller's Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus pelagicus 117 Gray-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus 118 Rough-legged Hawk (Buzzard) Buteo lagopus 119 Eastern Buzzard Buteo japonicus STRIGIFORMES: Strigidae 120 Essp Japanese (Pryer's) Scops-Owl Otus semitorques pryeri 121 Essp Ryukyu Scops-Owl Otus elegans elegans 122 EN NEAE Blakiston's Fish-Owl Ketupa blakistoni 123 Ural Owl Strix uralensis 124 Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus 125 Northern Boobook Ninox japonica CORACIIFORMES: Alcedinidae 126 Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis 127 Essp Crested Kingfisher Megaceryle lugubris PICIFORMES: Picidae 128 Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla 129 Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker Yungipicus kizuki 130 CR E Okinawa Woodpecker Dendrocopos noguchii 131 Essp White-backed Woodpecker Dendrocopos leucotos

132 Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major 133 E Japanese Woodpecker Picus awokera FALCONIFORMES: Falconidae 134 Eurasian Kestrel (Eurasian) Falco tinnunculus interstinctus 135 Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus PASSERIFORMES: Campephagidae 136 E Ryukyu Minivet Pericrocotus tegimae PASSERIFORMES: Laniidae 137 Bull-headed Shrike Lanius bucephalus 138 Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus PASSERIFORMES: Corvidae 139 Essp Eurasian Jay (Japanese) Garrulus glandarius japonicus 140 E Lidth's Jay Garrulus lidthi 141 Daurian Jackdaw Coloeus dauuricus 142 (Eastern) Rook Corvus frugilegus 143 Carrion Crow Corvus corone 144 Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos PASSERIFORMES: Paridae 145 Coal Tit Periparus ater 146 Varied Tit Sittiparus varius 147 Essp Marsh Tit Poecile palustris hensoni 148 Asian Tit (Japanese) Parus cinereus minor PASSERIFORMES: Remizidae 149 Chinese Penduline-Tit Remiz consobrinus PASSERIFORMES: Alaudidae 150 Essp Eurasian (Japanese) Skylark Alauda arvensis japonica PASSERIFORMES: Hirundinidae 151 Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 152 Essp Asian House-Martin Delichon dasypus PASSERIFORMES: Pycnonotidae 153 Brown-eared Bulbul Hypsipetes amaurotis 154 Light-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis PASSERIFORMES: Scotocercidae 155 Japanese Bush-Warbler Horornis diphone PASSERIFORMES: Aegithalidae 156 Essp Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus PASSERIFORMES: Zosteropidae 157 Essp Warbling (Japanese) White-eye Zosterops japonicus japonicus PASSERIFORMES: Leiothrichidae 158 I Red-billed Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea 159 I Chinese Hwamei Garrulax canorus PASSERIFORMES: Sittidae 160 Essp Eurasian Nuthatch (Buff-bellied) Sitta europaea PASSERIFORMES: Certhiidae 161 Essp Eurasian Treecreeper Certhia familiaris japonica PASSERIFORMES: Troglodytidae

162 Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes PASSERIFORMES: Cinclidae 163 Brown Dipper Cinclus pallasii PASSERIFORMES: Sturnidae 164 I European Starling Sturnus vulgaris 165 White-cheeked Starling Spodiopsar cineraceus PASSERIFORMES: Turdidae 166 CR E Amami Thrush Zoothera major 167 Pale Thrush Turdus pallidus 168 Brown-headed Thrush Turdus chrysolaus 169 Dusky Thrush Turdus eunomus 170 Naumann's Thrush Turdus naumanni PASSERIFORMES: Muscicapidae 171 E Ryukyu Robin Larvivora komadori 172 E Okinawa Robin Larvivora namiyei 173 Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus 174 Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus 175 Blue Rock-Thrush Monticola solitarius PASSERIFORMES: Prunellidae 176 I Scaly-breasted Munia Lonchura punctulata PASSERIFORMES: Prunellidae 177 NE Japanese Accentor Prunella rubida fervida PASSERIFORMES: Passeridae 178 Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus PASSERIFORMES: Motacillidae 179 Gray Wagtail Motacilla cinerea 180 Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis 181 BE Japanese Wagtail Motacilla grandis 182 White Wagtail Motacilla alba 183 Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni 184 Siberian Pipit Anthus japonicus 265 PASSERIFORMES: Fringillidae 185 Brambling Fringilla montifringilla 186 Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes 187 Japanese Grosbeak Eophona personata 188 Long-tailed Rosefinch Carpodacus sibiricus 189 Asian Rosy-Finch Leucosticte arctoa 190 Oriental (Grey-capped) Greenfinch Chloris sinica 191 Eurasian Siskin Spinus spinus PASSERIFORMES: Emberizidae 192 Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata 193 Essp Meadow Bunting Emberiza cioides ciopsis 194 Yellow-throated Bunting Emberiza elegans 195 (Common) Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus 196 VU Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica 197 NE Masked (Black-faced) Bunting Emberiza personata

MAMMALS CRICETIDAE: Voles and Lemmings 1 Grey-sided Vole Myodes rufocanus CERCOPITHECIDAE: Old World Monkeys 2 E Japanese Macaque Macaca fuscata SCIURIDAE: Squirrels 3 E Japanese Squirrel Sciurus lis LEPORIDAE: Rabbits 4 EN E Amami Rabbit Pentelagus furnessi MURIDAE: Rats & mice 5 E Ryukyu spiny rat Tokudaia osimensis 6 E Ryukyus Islands Tree Rat Diplothrix legata PTEROPODIDAE: Flying Foxes 7 E Ryukyu Flying-fox Pteropus dasymallu CANIDAE: Canids 8 Red Fox Vulpes vulpes MUSTELIDAE: Mustelids 9 I Siberian Weasel Mustela sibirica PHOCIDAE: Seals 10 Largha (Spotted) Seal Phoca largha CERVIDAE: Deer 11 Essp Sika Deer Cervus nippon BALAENOPTERIDAE: Whales 12 Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae DELPHINIDAE: Dolphins 13 Striped Dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba SUIDAE: Pigs 14 Wild Boar Sus scrofa