Chinese Grosbeak

Chinese Grosbeak (Eophona migratoria) is a stout East Asian finch with a large yellow bill, grey body, black head and tail and contrasting white wing markings. 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 occupies woodland, parks and cultivated country, using its powerful bill on hard seeds and fruit stones and gathering in flocks outside breeding while some populations migrate. 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).