Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor (Prunella collaris) is a sturdy mountain songbird with a grey head, finely streaked back, spotted white throat and chestnut-barred flanks. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives above the tree line across Eurasian and North African mountains, foraging on the ground for insects and seeds and moving to lower slopes when deep winter snow covers alpine feeding areas. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).