Red-flanked Bluetail

Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) is a small forest chat whose adult male has blue upperparts, orange flanks and white underparts; females are brown with blue in the tail. 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 northern Asian mixed conifer forest, forages near the ground for insects and berries and migrates mainly to the Himalayas, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. 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).