Azure-winged Magpie

Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) is a slim long-tailed corvid with a glossy black cap, pale grey-fawn body and vivid azure-blue wings and tail. 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 in pine and broadleaf woodland, parks and gardens in eastern Asia, moving in social groups that forage for insects, fruit and seeds and cooperate around communal activities and nesting 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).