Northern Boobook

Northern Boobook (Ninox japonica) is a small brown hawk-owl with yellow eyes, a rounded head lacking ear tufts and pale underparts marked by darker streaks. 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 across eastern Asia, hunting insects and small vertebrates from woodland perches at night; one subspecies migrates while the southern Ryukyu form is non-migratory. 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).