Siberian Stonechat

Siberian Stonechat (Saxicola maurus) is a small upright chat whose male has a black head, white neck patch and orange breast, while females are mottled brown. 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 the East Palearctic in open scrub and grassland, watches from low stems before dropping onto insects and migrates to warmer parts of the Old World tropics. 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).