birding...

Amami Island

Satellite View
Best place for Lidth's Jay and Amami Woodcock

Eastern Hokkaido

Satellite View
For Blakiston's Fish-Owl, Red-crowned Crane and Steller's Sea-Eagle.

Ferry between Hokkaido and Honshu

Satellite View
For seabirds.

Hakata Bay

Satellite View
For Black-faced Spoonbill and Saunder's Gull.

Izumi

Satellite View
For White-naped, Hooded, Sandhill, Common and Siberian Cranes.

Karuizawa

Satellite View
For summer migrants

Miyake Island

Satellite View
For Seven Island Thrush, Styan's Grasshopper Warbler and Ijima's Warbler.

Okinawa

Satellite View
For Okinawa Rail, Pryer's Woodpecker and Ryukyu Robin.

* Field Guides & Bird Song

For a comprehensive list of recommended titles covering Asia as a whole - please see the Asia page of Fatbirder

283 Wild Bird Songs of Japan CD

Hideo Ueda 3 CD Set, Playing time: 186 minutes. Yama-Kei Publishers Co. Ltd. 1999
ISBN: 136328
Buy this book from NHBS.com

550 Birds of Japan (2 Volume Set)

M Kirihara, N Yamagata, T Yoshino and H Iozawa 700 pages, col photos. Bun'ichi Sogo Shuppan 2001
ISBN: 125296
Buy this book from NHBS.com

A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia

Craig Robson Hardcover - 504 pages ( 1 February, 2000) New Holland Publishers (UK)
ISBN: 1853683132
Buy this book from NHBS.com

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and East Asia

Tadao Shimba 400 pages, 800 col photos. Christopher Helm 2007
ISBN: 9780713674392
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Birds of Japan in Photographs

Edited by S Takano 492 pages, 641 col photos, 77 col illus. Tokai University Press 1981
ISBN: 4486006488
Buy this book from NHBS.com

The Birds of Japan

Mark A. Brazil, Masayuki Yabuuchi (Illustrator) Hardcover - 448 pages (30 April, 1991) Christopher Helm
ISBN: 0713680067
Buy this book from NHBS.com

The Songs and Calls of 333 Birds in Japan, Volume 1 CD

Volume 1 - Non-Songbirds - Kabaya Tsuruhiko and Matsuda Michio Series: THE SONGS AND CALLS OF 333 BIRDS IN JAPAN 3 CDs (Audio). Shogakukan 1996
ISBN: 4094800719
Buy this book from NHBS.com

The Songs and Calls of 333 Birds in Japan, Volume 2 CD

Volume 2 Songbirds - Kabaya Tsuruhiko and Matsuda Michio Series: THE SONGS AND CALLS OF 333 BIRDS IN JAPAN 3 Audio CDs. Shogakukan 1996
ISBN: 4094800727
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Wild Birds of Japan

Takuya Kanouchi, Naoya Abe and Hideo Ueda 623 pages, col photos. Yama-Kei Publishers Co. Ltd. 1998
ISBN: 4635070077
Buy this book from NHBS.com

Akan International Crane Center

Website
Satellite View
In Japanese - a page in English

Hiroshi Takada

Website
Satellite View;
Known as migratory birds travelling between Australia and Japan, Little Terns (Sterna albifrons) are facing extinction. Every spring, 300 to 500 birds migrate to one of Japan's largest surviving colonies located in Atsugi, Kanagawa.This colony is now seriously threatened by roadworks planned for the area.

Kaga-city Kamoike Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
This center was built to educate visitors and increase their sentiments to protect nature through being close to it. We should take pride in watching birds and animals around the water and the plants in this pond.Around this bird watching site, the center's members will kindly explain about birds. Inside the center, you can use telescopes, special exhibitions, books, materials, films and slides on nature. You can also use special program of sight by Modernized film. In the future, this center will help this area to become a wild bird's paradise.We hope to protect the birds and get on well together.

Koyaike Park

A pond occupies about half of the park, and viewing is possible during all four season. In addition to such sights as ducks, egrets, and whistler swans, in the winter visitors can also see tufted ducks.

Kushiro International Wetland Center

Website
Satellite View
In Japanese

Kushiro Shitsugen National Park

Website
Satellite View
Kushiro Shitsugen National Park in Hokkaido was established in 1987 and is Japan's most recently designated National Park. It was created in order to preserve the country's largest wetland and marsh habitat which supports the only known population of endangered Japanese Cranes in Japan...

Lake Akkeshi - Bekanbeushi Marsh

Information
Satellite View
Lake Akkeshi is a shallow and brackish lake adjoining Akkeshi bay with a perimeter of 26 km. It is famed for its oyster and short-necked clam farming. At low tide several tidelands become exposed which provide good feeding grounds for waterfowl. For this reason, Japanese Crane breed here from spring to autumn whilst Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus; over ten species of wild geese, ducks, White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla and Steller's Sea Eagle H. pelagicus are to be found here from autumn to spring.

Lake Utonai Bird Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
In May, 1981, the Wild Bird Society of Japan designated Lake Utonai and its surrounding marshland covering 511 hectares as a Bird Sanctuary, the nation's first of its kind, for the purpose of preserving nature and the wildlife as well as propagating the drive. In the sanctuary, a Nature Center, an observation hut and Bird-watching paths are provided. Aiming at protecting Lake Utonai, including its surrounding marshland and waterfowl, the city and nature protection organizations are lobbing the sanctuary to be designated as a location registered with the Lamsar Treaty through the Environmental Agency and other Authorities concerned.

Osaka-Nankou Bird Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
Osaka Nankou Bird Sanctuary is in the northwest corner of Sakishima landfill with about 1,000 ha area in Osaka Bay. West side of the sanctuary faces the Osaka Bay through the sea bank...

Red-crowned Crane Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
This time we would like to introduce HARADA, Osamu, Chief Ranger of the Tsurui-Ito Red-Crowned Crane Sanctuary. Tsurui Village, Hokkaido, where Harada works, is well known as a feeding ground for Red-crowned cranes in winter. The red-crowned crane has been designated a special natural treasure of Japan. Harada is one of the leading activists striving to protect these precious birds. However, he does not focus on only the cranes. In order to protect the cranes, we must think about the whole environment in which they live. We had an interesting interview with HARADA about how he has been facing the present situation of the cranes and about the abundant nature of Hokkaido.

Syunkunitai Wild Bird Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
Syunkunitai is known as a important habitat for birds and a quite famous bird-watching area throughout Japan. Syunkunitai is a long and narow sandbank where has 8km in length and 1.3km in width. It is surrounded by the water and has various natural habitats as the stream, marsh, grassland and deciduous forest etc., therefore various species of birds, animals, insects and plants can live in here. About 250 species of birds have been recorded and endangered species as Red-crowned Cranes, White-tailed Eagles and Black Woodpeckers breed in Syunkunitai.

Tateyama Wild Bird Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
Due to its location in the center of the Japanese Archipelago, this area has long been used by migratory birds as a place to rest and gather food and water, for which reason it has been designated as a protected bird sanctuary...

Tokyo Port Wild Birds Park

Website
Satellite View
This is a small bird sanctuary (27 hectares) of the Wild Bird Society of Japan in the highly developed harbour area between central Tokyo and Haneda airport. It consists actually of two small parks, separated by a road. The entrance is in the west park. This park contains two small freshwater ponds closely surrounded by small trees and shrubs. Via a footbridge over the road one reaches the eastern park: a small open complex of freshwater ponds and mud flats and a larger tidal basin. In the middle there is a nicely designed building for bird observation with lots of telescopes, a tiny library and friendly japanese guides. In March 97 reconstruction of the eastern park has begun.

Wetlands

Website
Japan presently has 13 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance, with a surface area of 84,089 hectares...

Yonago Waterbird Sanctuary

Website
Satellite View
Yonago Waterbirds Sanctuary Companion Circle is a citizens organization which supports the activities of the Yonago Waterbirds Sanctuary... [Japanese only]

2000 [May] - Tony Coatsworth

Report

e.g.Kushiro marsh (#39) is one of the great spectacles in winter for dancing Cranes. In the Spring they disperse to nesting places further east but there are forest trails nearby to explore in the summer.

2001 [April] - Wim Vader

Report

My first ever vist to Japan started out with 5 days in Shimonoseki, the southernmost city on the main island of Honshu. There I was the official guest of the city, and the days passed in a whirl of meetings, receptions and other social occasions, a scientific symposium, and some hurried sight-seeing in pouring rain, ending up in the opening of the spectacularly beautiful aquarium and nature museum Kaikyokan om April 1st...

2002 [June] - Robert Payne

Report

I recently attended the England/Sweden World Cup football match as part of a competition prize. The match was held at Saitama Stadium near Tokyo and we were staying at the Crown Plaza Metropolitan Hotel in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo. Luckily the itinery allowed a fair amount of free time so I managed to sneak away for a little bit of birding...

2002 [March] - Björn Anderson & Lars Davner

Report

This is a report, written by Björn Anderson, from a two weeks birding trip to Japan in late February and early March 2002. Highlights from a birding perspective were; 70 Steller´s Sea-Eagles sitting on the ice at Furen-ko; unforgettable sight of dancing Japanese Cranes in the snow; 11 species of alcids and 9 of those from Nosappu Misaki in calm sunny weather with pack-ice in the background; a splendid male Copper Pheasant at Naka-Karuizawa; Falcated Ducks and Baikal Teals near Osaka; 8,500 cranes of six species at Arasaki; close-up views of Japanese Murrelets at Kadogawa, Kyushu; adult summer plumage Saunders´s Gull at Funabashi, Tokyo; duetting and day-roosting pairs of Blakiston´s Fish-Owls in Hokkaido; the flocks of Japanese Waxwings and Pallas´s Rosefinches at Naka-Karuizawa; the albatrosses, shearwaters, skuas and alcids from the ferry between Hokkaido and Oarai...

2003 [June] Tony Pym

Report

...the Crested Auklet count grows fast: thousands can be seen (at once) in one flock lifting off from the bows.….Instead of Yankicha, we have a landing at Mashua Island...

2003 [May] - Charles Harper - Tobishima

Report

Tobishima, Black Kite Island, off the Japan Sea coast of northern Honshu, is one of a loose line of offshore islands from Kyushu to Hokkaido which are of particular interest to Japanese birders. They are vagrant traps: in the spring and fall, when mainland migrants stray from the coasts of Korea, China or Russia, these islands are their first landfall. They vary in size from Sado (860 sq. km.) to Hegurajima (1 sq. km.);and are all reachable by ferry in from one to three hours, incidentally offering an opportunity for some pelagic birding, though this is not as exciting as off the open Pacific coast...

2003 [October] Paul Bamford - Tokyo & Hachiojima Island

Report

...The best place is the Iris Garden but this was closed so early in the morning. I wandered around for about 3 hours and did indeed connect with the common species such as Great and Varied Tits, Japanese White-eyes, Pied and Grey Wagtails, lots of Tree Sparrows, a mystery pipit, Eastern Turtle Doves and Feral pigeons. I missed the woodpeckers, finches and buntings, on a return visit near the end of the trip the park was still lacking these species, I think I was there in mid season, after the summer but before the winter residents had arrived...

2005 [February] - Ed Keeble

Report

...This extended trip was organised around two long-cherished ambitions- to see Steller’s Sea Eagle on the ice in Hokkaido and to see a drake Scaly-sided Merganser anywhere one could be found. The trip was successful on both scores and of course provided plenty of other entertainment besides...

2005 [February] - Richard & Erica Klim

Report

...Most birders would have to sell their house to afford the cost of an organised birding tour to Japan. But trip reports by Björn Anderson and Dave Sargeant have demonstrated that independent birding trips to Japan are not difficult...

2006 [May] - Gary & Marlene Babic - Ryuku Islands

Report

It is possible to cover the birding sites for the endemic birds of Amami and Okinawa in only a few days, essentially following the directions in Brazil’s book. We did not see Amami Woodcock or “Amami Thrush”, or the Amami Black Rabbit – all of which have been reported to have been decimated by the introduction of mongoose on Amami to control the endemic Habu-Habu snake. The woodcock and thrush may still be “findable” but probably at another site. The other endemics were found in the expected locations...

2007 [February] - Chris Cook - Okinawa/Amami-Oshima/south Kyushu/east Hokkaido

Report

Annotated list...

2007 [May] - Barry Cooper & Gail Mackiernan

Report

This was our second seabird-oriented voyage on a commercial cruise ship, the m/s Statendam (Holland-America Lines). Our first (from Capetown to Valparaiso via Antarctica on the Royal Princess) was very successful and we learned that these large vessels offer many opportunities for the serious sea-birder. Not the least of which is a completely stable platform from which one can comfortably use one’s scopes, covered decks in wet weather, and a vast array of possible routes...

2008 [February] - Mark Finn

Report

The Birdwatching Breaks to Japan was probably the most successful tour to date recording several rarities and scarce Japanese endemic species. Notable sightings included Short-tailed, Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses off the Nagano to Tomakomai ferry, Lesser White-fronted and Middendorf's Bean Geese at Komatsu, drake Surf Scoter off Hokkaido and a wintering Forest Wagtail in Kyushu. In addition to this we again had incredible views of Blakiston Eagle (Fish) Owls, Red-crowned Cranes and White-tailed and Steller's Sea Eagles on Hokkaido...

2008 [January] - David Shackelford

Report

Bright vermilion torri gates marked the entrance of an indigenous Shinto shrine as our adventures travelling through the country of Japan in winter began with a cultural visit to the Grand Pagoda in the lively settlement of Narita. Even in the surrounding gardens we began finding out first Japanese endemics and specialties including the minute Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, active Japanese Wagtail, noisy Brown-eared Bulbul and one of our few sightings of the widespread Hawfinch...

2009 [March] - Keith Barnes

Report

This trip was a quickfire junket to the islands of Japan to nab the winter specialties. The clients had already done a Japan trip in summer and had spent considerable time in eastern Asia already, meaning that a few East Asia specialty birds like Black-faced Spoonbill and Baer’s Pochard were not target species...

2010 [February] - Mark Finn

Report

Birdwatching Breaks operate one of the best winter itineraries to Japan and our tour this year was no exception as we recorded a host of species including most of the endemic birds and a few stragglers from North America. In a species total of 170, we had many highlights including three Blakiston’s Fish Owls at a private site in Eastern Hokkaido, Japanese Murrelets off the Kyushu coast and hundreds of wintering Steller’s and White-tailed Sea Eagles. In Kyushu the mild weather attracted wintering Intermediate Egret and Brown Shrike whilst several Black-faced Spoonbills were also noted...

2010 [June] - Nick Brickle

Report

I’d long wanted to visit these endemic-filled islands and my chance finally came to tag a short five day trip onto a longer family holiday to Taiwan. The birding was great, and by any account, very successful. Within 24 hours of arriving on each island I’d seen all of the target birds I was after, including Okinawa Rail, Amami Woodcock, Ryukyu Green-Pigeon, Japanese Woodpigeon, Elegant Scops-Owl, Pryer’s [Japanese] Scops-Owl, Ryukyu [Northern] Hawk-Owl, Pryer’s Woodpecker, Owston’s [White-backed] Woodpecker, Ryukyu Minivet, Japanese Paradise Flycatcher, Ryukyu [Narcissus] Flycatcher, Ryukyu Robin, Lidth’s Jay and Amami Thrush...

2010 [June] - Petri Hottola - East Hokkaido

Report

Most foreign birdwatchers visit East Hokkaido in winter, in order to look for the large concentrations of sea-eagles and wintering seabirds. Winter is, however, not the only good birding season in the North of Japan. On the contrary, late spring—early summer offers some of the best birds and weather conditions. There are no biting insects, most of the trees have fresh leaves, spring flowers bloom, together with cherry trees, the air has a fragrant smell, the bird singing season is at its peak and early breeders such as Red-crowned Cranes already have the first young ones on the marshlands. Such were the conditions during my visit to Hokkaido between 7th to 12th June, in 2010...

2010 [March] - Max Berlijn

Report

...Birded around the feeders at the Stained Glass, later on tried for Copper Pheasant with no luck near the house. Around noon drove to Karuizawa and birded around the main stream in the late afternoon...

Migration Report - Chinese Goshawk - Autumn 2008

Report

Observations

ARRCN Asian Raptor Migration Webpage

Website

This web site is consisted by information of Asian raptor migration. Therfore, if you have some information on Asian raptor migration, please send me the data.We ask that the following raptor migration data be provided, at least.

Bird observations in Ibaraki and the Kanto plain

Website

The Kanto plain consists of the prefectures Ibaraki, Saitama, Tochigi, Tokyo, Chiba, Gunma, Kanagawa. Sometimes Yamanishi is included as well.

Bird Songs in Japan

Website

Clickable links to birdsong...

Birds

Website

More pictures - in Japanese

Birds of Japan

Website

These pages collect lots of different data collected by lots of people. A number of them still subscribes to the Kantori mailing list. I found birdwatching in Japan a refreshing experience. Basically I had to start all over again. Not only there were lots of new species, but also what might have been familiar was sometimes replaced by a confusingly different subspecies. Up to date information was and is hard to obtain because of unfamiliarity with the japanese language...

Birds of Japan

Website

What's so great about a list of bird names? After all, the names that men give are just a pale reflection of the birds themselves. Well, bird-lovers may rejoice in biodiversity, but in matters linguistic they tend to use common or garden English as a lowest common denominator. So, in the interest of 'lingua-diversity', here it is: a list of bird species of Japan, with names in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, German, and French...

Birds of the Aomori prefecture of Japan

Website

Somewhere in 1997 Mike Danzenbaker and Lee Hung moved to Japan from the US. They are both active and serious birders and photographers. They were living in Misawa in Aomori, one of the northernmost cities in Honshu. Their monthly reports provided a wealth of information about birdlife in Aomori. [Mike & Lee are now back in California]

Hawk Migration in Shinshu

Website

Hawk Migration Monitoring in Shinshu.

Hiroshima Raptor Migration & Ecology Research

Website

In Japanese - but some English version pages

Kantori Lode - Birds of Japan

Website

This website is a cooperative effort by the members of the Yahoo Japan English-Language Birders Group, Kantori. It is an accumulation and collocation of information from our membership group postings and other sources on the Japanese avifauna of interest to the membership. Although the website language is English, we would particularly like to thank our Japanese friends and colleagues, without whose knowledge and contributions this site would be considerably more barren...

Me and birds for the Earth

Website

Birders home page...

On-line Birdwatching

Website

Picture of wild-birds around Miyama-town Mie pref Japan etc...

Rockjumper Birding Tours

Tour Operator

Our tour through Japan explores the main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido and Kyushu for some of the world’s most spectacular and sought-after birds, whilst simultaneously enjoying the wonderfully diverse scenery and excellent local cuisine.

Shiokawa Tidalflat

Website

Shiokawa tidalflat is one of the representative waders-watching sites in JAPAN. Land area is about 280ha and it is surrounded by wet field(rice field); dry field(cabbage field);pond (not-using fishing pond); marsh field(not-using industrial area). Various habitats support many kinds of birds.So far 250 species have been recorded in this area. Shiokawa tidalflat is located in MIKAWA bay. That bay has been reclaimed for industrial development since 60s. In decreasing natural coast, Shiokawa tidalflat was remained accidentally. And now,it is one of the most important site for waders, not only in MIKAWA bay but also in JAPAN We are glad that you see apart of Shiokawa tidallflat and be interested in this site by this page.

Stint Fan

Website

Cracking pictures... text largely in Japanese.

Teuri Island Seabird Information Centre

Website

Where to see Japanese seabirds...

Unofficial Checklist of the Birds of Japan

Website

This is work in progress. Here is the preamble which contains the sources on which this lis is based. To be done: spelling check and recheck of english names and Japanese names. recheck of of subspecies; comparison BoJ, HBW, SM; check gulls, owls, and other difficult splits. Also a comparison with the newly appeared OSJ97 has to be made: it differs with BoJ on the level of subspecies: both BoJ and OSJ77 contain subspecies that the other does not contain...

Wild Birdsong

Website

Clickable links to calls...