Amami Thrush ______ Amami (spring & winter tours) (JPe)
Zoothera major 
In the mid-1990's, the breeding population was estimated as being about 60 birds. The similar White's Thrush is smaller. The Amami Thrush has a cheerful song, delivered mostly in the morning, and similar to that of the Siberian Thrush, another Zoothera species. The White's Thrush has a more mournful song delivered mostly at night. The Amami Thrush, found only on that island, is confined to mature (over 60 years old), subtropical, evergreen forest, at an altitude of 100 to 400 meters. It is a shy bird. 

Oriental Stork ______ Kyushu (during 2 winter tours, very rare in Japan)
Ciconia boyciana 
With a total population of about 2,500 birds, this species breeds only in the Amur and Ussuri basins (along the border of Siberia and China), and winters, mainly, in eastern & southern China.   

"Owston's (or Amami) Woodpecker" ______ Amami (spring & winter tours) (JPe)
Dendrocopos (formerly Picoides) (leucotos) owstoni
(formerly Picoides) (leucotos) owstoni
Endemic to Amami Island, this bird has traditionally been considered a subspecies of the White-backed Woodpecker, as the largest and darkest race of that wide-ranging species that occurs across the Palearctic. So distinctive is this Amami resident, however, it may well be determined to be a full species.
   

Category #3: VULNERABLE:

Short-tailed (or Steller's) Albatross ______ pelagically, off Honshu (during spring & winter tours seen twice, both times in 2000 - early January & early June ) (JPeb)
Phoebastria albatrus
This albatross has a very small population, and a breeding range limited to 2 Japanese islands. Recent conservation efforts have resulted in a gradual population increase. (More information in FURTHER NOTES following this list.) 

Black-footed Albatross ______ pelagically, off Honshu (spring & winter tours) 
Phoebastria nigripes 
Breeds on the northwestern Hawaiian Islands (USA) and 3 outlying islands of Japan. Colonies have disappeared on other Pacific islands. There was a near 20% decline between 1995 & 2000.   

Scaly-sided (or Chinese) Merganser ______ Honshu (during 2 winter tours) 
Mergus squamatus
This species has a small and declining population. Its total population is estimated as between 3,500 and 4,500 individuals. Most breed in southeastern Siberia, in Khabarovsk and Primorye. The breeding population in China (in the northeastern Manchurian region of Heilungkiang) is estimated as 200 to 250 pairs, and it is declining.
So, the Scaly-sided Merganser is a rare bird. And, overall, little is known about it. The species is closely related to both the Common Merganser (or Goosander) and the Red-breasted Merganser, with Its range overlapping with both even during the breeding season.
The distribution within the nesting range is sparse, along fast-flowing rivers. Territorial pairs occupy at least 4-kilometer stretches of rivers. Birds are normally found in pairs, or in small family parties. If in groups, outside the breeding season, the groups are small. The birds are shy and wary. Their flight is fast and low.
Nests are in holes of old riverside trees. After nesting, the extent of migration is uncertain. Some birds seem to go only to the lower reaches of the rivers along which they bred (particularly those that flow from the eastern side of the Sikote range in Siberia). Others have been recorded considerably further away. There are old records of wintering birds in southwestern China. Also, the bird has been recorded elsewhere in China (particularly in the valley of the Yangtze), and in Korea, and more rarely in Japan, northern Vietnam, and northern Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Outside the breeding season, the Scaly-sided Merganser can be encountered on open lakes, but generally its preference is to be along rivers.
During the winter, the species is apparently rare, but regular, in Japan. It was first discovered there in the mid-1980's. Also during that decade, the species was found for the first time in Taiwan in winter.
Determining the population of this species has been difficult due to the remoteness of the breeding range and the secretiveness of the bird. Surveys conducted in Siberia, however, seem to have shown a considerable decrease since the 1960's. 

Steller's Sea-Eagle ______ Hokkaido, Honshu (seen on Honshu twice, a rarity there; apparently one bird two consecutive years) (winter tours) 
Haliacetus pelagicus 
The total population is estimated at about 5,000 birds and declining. Most (more than half) of those birds winter in Hokkaido, Japan, and on the nearby Kuril Islands.
Some birds, normally in the hundreds, winter further north on the Kamchatka Peninsula and by the Sea of Okhotsk. Breeding is exclusively in southeastern Siberia.

Fairy Pitta ______ Kyushu (spring tours) 
Pitta nympha 
This beautiful bird breeds in southern Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. It winters mainly on the island of Borneo, Brunei, and Kalimantan (in Indonesia). In its breeding range, it is localized. The bird's population is unlikely to be more than a few thousand individuals, and is apparently declining. 

Ijima's (Leaf-) Warbler ______ Amami (winter tours) (JPe)
Phylioscopus ijimae 
This bird breeds on the Izu Islands, southeast of mainland Japan, between Oshima and Aogashima, and winters, apparently, on the Nansei Shoto islands. It has a small and fragmented population, and is declining.

Marsh Grassbird (or "Japanese Marsh Warbler") ______ Honshu (spring tours) 
Megalurus p. pryeri 
(This species is known to breed at 6 locations on the main Japanese island of Honshu. It probably also breeds in Heilongjiang and Liaoning in China and at Lake Khanka in Siberia. It is said to winter in southern Japan, and in the Yangtze basin in China. The population in Japan is estimated to be about 1,000 birds.)

(Japanese) Yellow (or "Siebold's") Bunting ______ Honshu, including Hegura Island (spring tours), Okinawa (during 1 winter tour)
Emberiza sulphurata 
This species breeds only in Japan. It is thought to winter mainly in the Philippines, although may winter in far-southern Japan (Nansei Shoto) and in Taiwan. It is generally uncommon in its restricted breeding range in Japan, and it believed to have declined significantly in the 20th Century.

Lidth's Jay ______ Amami (spring & winter tours) (JPe)
Garrulus lidthi 
This beautiful, colorful bird is not only endemic to Japan, but to the island of Amami and the adjacent small island of Kakeroma-jima, in the Nansei Shoto islands. Its population was estimated to be about 5,800 birds in the 1970's.
Some aspects of this bird's behavior are unusual for a jay. It is a habitual cavity-nester, laying plain-colored eggs. And it has been observed using its stout bill as a climbing aid in the manner of a parrot.   

Whistling (or Formosa) Green-Pigeon (has also rather inappropriately been called Red-capped Green-Pigeon) ______ Amami, Okinawa (spring & winter tours) 
Treron (formerly Sphenurus) formosae permagus 
This bird is considered a small-island specialist. It nests on the Nansei Shoto islands of Japan, Taiwan, and the Batanes Islands, north of Luzon in the Philippines. It is uncommon & local in the Batanes, rare in Taiwan, and common only in the Japanese Nansei Shoto islands.      

Elegant (or Ryukyu) Scops-Owl (has previously been considered as part of the Celebes (or Sulawesi) Scops Owl; prior to that as part of Oriental Scops-Owl)  ______ Amami, Okinawa (spring & winter tours) 
Otus e. elegans (other subspecies are on islands off Taiwan and the Philippines) 
This bird occurs, as a resident, on the Nansei Shoto islands of southern Japan, on Lanyu Island off the southeast Taiwan, and on the Batanes and Babuyan islands off northern Luzon, in the Philippines. It inhabits subtropical evergreen forest, and locally in and near villages. It is common wherever suitable habitat remains in the Nansei Shoto, where there seems to be a good population. 

Japanese Waxwing ______ Hokkaido (spring & winter tours), Honshu (spring tours), Kyushu (winter tours), Amami (during 1 winter tour) 
Bombycilla japonica 
This species breeds only in eastern Siberia, in coniferous forests of eastern Yakutia, Khabarovsk, and Amur. It is a non-breeding visitor in Japan, where it is uncommon and sporadic. It also winters in South Korea, where it is irregular and uncommon, and in mainland China. Given its limited breeding range, the total population must be small.    

Japanese Paradise Flycatcher (was called Black Paradise Flycatcher) ______ Kyushu, Amami, Okinawa (spring tours) 
In Japan, this striking bird breeds is in humid forests of southern Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and the Nansei Shoto islands. It also nests in South Korea and Taiwan. The bird winters, to the south, in the Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Indonesia, but no where commonly. A recent survey has detected a steep decline in part of the Japanese nesting population, possibly due to forest loss and degradation in the wintering range.    

Japanese Reed Bunting (or Ochre-rumped Bunting) ______ Honshu (spring tours; once during a winter tour)
Emberiza y. yessoensis 
In Japan, this species breeds in wetlands with tall grass on Honshu and Kyushu. It formerly did so on Hokkaido. Outside Japan, breeding is only in extreme south-east Siberia and north-east China. Wintering is in South Korea and along the coast of eastern China. The bird is considered uncommon or rare in all parts of its range. It is presumably declining due to loss and degradation of wetland habitat in its breeding range.    

Red-billed (or Silky) Starling ______ Kyushu, Okinawa (during 2 winter tours, a vagrant in Japan, normally in China) 
Sturnus sericeus  

Miraculously, in the early 1950's, 8 to 10 albatrosses appeared on Toroshima. As immature birds, over the years, they had been wandering the seas. During that decade, numbers varied from 20 to 30. In 1958, on Torshima, there were only 14 or 15 adults, 5 to 7 immatures, and 8 chicks. Since then, there's been a slow but steady increase in the population of the bird, with Toroshima, most of the time, the only known breeding location for the species in the world.

In 1960, all of the chicks (6 of them) were found killed. Only 22 adult birds were found. In the 1960's, the population began to rise more substantially to over 50 birds. In the 1970's it was to over 60. By 1979, the count was 95 birds (& 22 chicks). In March 1981, there were about 130 birds (& 34 chicks). In November 1981, 63 eggs were found. In March 1982, there 21 chicks with about 140 adults and subadults. The total population figures following 1979 were based on observations at Toroshima together with estimates of non-breeders away from the colony. Thus, in 1982, the world population of the species was said to be about 250 birds. Since 1979, over 50 eggs have been laid annually.

In 1991, the population had risen to about 500 birds. Since then it has increased further. The rate of increase has been about 7% per year. Thus, the population doubled in 10 years. Breeding success improved with grass transplantation to stabilize nesting areas. Still, however, the population remains rather vulnerable due to the volcanic nature of Torishima.

During recent years, the Short-tailed Albatross has also been at a Japanese island other than Torishima. It's been on the southerly island of Minami-kojima (one of the Senkaku Islands). 12 adult birds were found there in 1971. Breeding was not confirmed there until 1988. A population of 75 birds was estimated there in 1991 (among them 15 breeding pairs). Since then, about 100 birds have been at the island.

In the central Pacific, at Midway Atoll (in Hawaii), 1 or 2 Short-tailed Albatrosses were present during the last 2 decades of the 20th Century. An incubating bird was found there in 1993, but the egg was abandoned.

At the Torishima, Japan, breeding colony, adult birds return in October. Eggs are laid October-November. Young are fledged from May onwards.  

The following text is from "The Birds of Japan: Their Status & Distribution", by Oliver L. Austin Jr. & Nagahisa Kuroda, published in 1953, and written when the Short-tailed (or Steller's) Albatross was thought to be extinct:

Diomedeidae
Diomedea albatrus (Pallas)
Steller's (Short-tailed) Albatross
Japanese name: Ahodori (meaning "fool bird")

This magnificent albatross is probably extinct. Its disappearance was caused partly by the volcanic eruptions which destroyed its former nesting grounds on Torishima, but primarily by the activities of the plume hunters of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The most-recent definite record is the one for the few birds banded on Torishima in 1933 and killed there in 1934 (cf. Austin 1949b: 283-295).

It formerly bred on Torishima in the southern Izu Islands, on the northernmost of the Bonin Islands, and on isolated islets in the southern Ryukyus and the Pescadores. Its nesting season was from November through April. After the young were on the wing, the birds moved northward along the Japanese coast to summer in the Bering Sea, and then down the west coast of North America as far as Baja California, before returning to their breeding grounds in late autumn. The spring flight past Japan was marked by the numbers of dark-colored immature birds it contained, which could be confused with the Black-footed Albatross. The immature Steller's differed from the adult Black-footed only by its larger size and its lighter-colored bill, neither of which could be discerned at a far distance. An adult Steller's could also be difficult, at a distance, to tell in the field from the adult Laysan Albatross.


BLAKISTON'S FISH OWL (Bubo (formerly Ketupa). b. blakistoni   

This bird is as extraordinary and formidable as any owl in the world. The Blakiston's Fish Owl (as it has traditionally been called) is huge, with a wingspan of about 6 and a half feet. It's larger than the Eagle Owl of Siberia.

Its legs are fully feathered. Its toes are bristly as are those of other fish owls. It's interesting that structurally the Blakiston's Fish Owl has features of both the "fish owls" (genus Ketupa) and the "eagle owls" (genus Bubo).

In addition to Hokkaido, Japan, the species occurs only in far-eastern Siberia (including Sakhalin and the southern Kurile Islands) and adjacent Manchuria, In that area of mainland Asia, with a cold climate and severe winters, there may be a few hundred birds. They inhabit dense, dark, primeval forests, either coniferous, deciduous, or mixed, bordering lakes, rivers, and even the ocean shore. They live in cold and difficult places for birds that eat mostly fish.

On the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido (a place where winters can also be severe), Blakiston's Fish-Owls are seriously endangered, confined to relict areas of undisturbed forest. In 1983, less than 30 birds were recorded. The following year, as survey workers gained more confidence of those guarding secret locations, some 50 birds were located. During that year, 1984, however, only 2 pairs were known to have bred successfully. Since then, in Hokkaido, with successful nest box schemes in the forest, there has been some improvement in nesting productivity. In the wild, nests are usually in large, hollow tress high above the forest floor, but sometimes in decayed fallen trees closer to the ground.    

In the Siberian portion of the bird's range, Blakiston's Fish-Owls have been found at a density of 1 pair to every 7.5 to 9 miles of large river. In Hokkaido, in all of  the river valleys now occupied by owls, that figure is less than 6 miles. Territories are occupied by birds for years. Individual owls are so attached to their territories that a bird which loses its mate will remain alone until another may arrive by chance.

Blakiston's Fish-Owls are active throughout the night, as well as around dusk and dawn. In the summer, they may do some hunting (to feed their young), during lighter hours of the long summer days. In the winter, they're exclusively nocturnal, emerging after sunset.

The territorial song is deep and resonant (although it does not travel as far as that of the Eagle Owl). Males and females call together in duets.

Blakiston's Fish-Owls, aptly, prefer fish as their primary food. In the late summer, they feed on trout. In the autumn, they turn to salmon. Also, at times, they eat: pike, catfish, burbot, and crayfish. In the spring, they live largely on swarms of frogs that spawn in riverside marshes. Small mammals (such as hares and martens) are also eaten, as well as an occasional duck, Hazel Hen, or smaller bird. At some places, the owls feed along rocky seacoasts. Where they exist in sufficient numbers (and that's not many places), they may gather during the winter in small groups by openings in the river ice.

In Hokkaido, Japan, the Balkiston's Fish-Owl, like the Brown Bear, was once held in reverence. The fish-owl was known as "the god who defends the village". Later, it suffered persecution, especially during the winter when it was compelled to live close to openings in the ice, and, therefore, could more easily be killed.

Today, under Japan's conservation laws, the Blakiston's Fish-Owl is fully protected. 

Recently, the fish-owl in Japan is said to have suffered, ironically, from the attention given to it by people who actually favor its protection and well-being. This applies particularly to photographers (and there are many of them in Japan) and other enthusiasts. There are some who don't realize the damage they can cause the bird. Recent efforts to discourage them have included trapping the owls and placing highly-reflective rings on their legs to make them less attractive in flashlit photographs. It's become a matter of concern to ornithologists that such "extreme methods" seem needed in order to protect a bird that's on the verge of extinction in Japan.                      

Threatened Birds of the World (a Birdlife International publication), Lynx Edicions, 2000