Japanese Waxwing

Japanese Waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) is a sleek crested bird with buff-grey plumage, a black mask, red-tipped secondary feathers and a red rather than yellow tail tip. 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 breeds in the eastern Palearctic and moves nomadically in winter, often overlapping with Bohemian waxwings, gathering in flocks to feed mainly on berries and fruit while adding insects in summer. 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).