Whinchat

Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) is a small mottled brown chat with a strong pale eyebrow, orange-buff breast and white patches at the base of the outer 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 open grassy country across Europe and western Asia, watches for insects from stems and low bushes, nests on the ground and migrates to central Africa for winter. 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).