Japanese Accentor

Japanese Accentor (Prunella rubida) is a small brown accentor with a grey face and breast, dark-streaked back and fine pointed bill. 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 occurs in Japan and Sakhalin in temperate forest and mountain scrub, searching low vegetation and the ground for insects and seeds and shifting elevation or latitude as seasonal conditions change. 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).