Chinese Hwamei

Chinese Hwamei (Garrulax canorus) is a warm brown laughingthrush with a long white eye-line that curves behind the eye like a painted eyebrow. 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 inhabits dense scrub and woodland edges in eastern Asia, foraging on or near the ground for insects and fruit and delivering a rich varied song that has made it popular as a cagebird. 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).