Japanese Robin

Japanese Robin (Larvivora akahige) is a small forest robin with a warm orange face and breast, olive-brown upperparts and pale lower belly, with females duller. 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 from the southern Kurils and Sakhalin through Japan, staying in dense shaded undergrowth while taking insects from the ground and low foliage and migrating locally or southward. 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).