Black-faced Spoonbill

Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) is a large white wader with black facial skin, a long black spatulate bill and a shaggy crest in breeding plumage. 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 feeds by wading through shallow coastal water and sweeping its partly open bill from side to side, detecting fish, crustaceans and other aquatic prey by touch. 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).