Daurian Redstart

Daurian Redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) is a small East Asian chat; males combine a grey crown, black face and back, orange underparts and a bright orange tail, while females are browner. 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 frequents open woodland, rocky slopes, farmland and settlements, dropping from low perches to take insects and also eating berries; northern birds move south during winter. 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).