PO Box 9021, Wilmington, DE 19809, USA
E-mail: font@focusonnature.com
Phone: Toll-free in USA 1-888-721-3555
 or 302/529-1876


Birds found during 
Focus On Nature Tours


on the Japanese island 
of Okinawa

1996 thru 2014

(noting months when found)

A list of Okinawa Birds 
compiled by Armas Hill

PHOTO AT RIGHT: An OKINAWA RAIL,
a species not known to science until 1982.

 
135 species of birds have been found during FONT tours in Okinawa & pelagically in nearby waters.


Codes:

(t): a globally threatened or rare species, designated by Birdlife International.
(t1): critical
(t2): endangered
(t3): vulnerable
(nt): considered a near-threatened species globally

(JPr): rare in Japan
(JPrs): rare in Japan in spring/summer
(JPrw): rare in Japan in winter

(OKr): rare on Okinawa

(JPe):  Japanese endemic
(JPeb):  endemic breeder in Japan
(JPneb):  near-endemic breeder in Japan

(OKe): Okinawa endemic 

(JPi):  introduced species in Japan

(p): seen pelagically, from the offshore ferry north from Okinawa to & between the other Ryukyu Islands of Yoronoto, Okinoerabujima, & Tokunoshima  (islands south to north)
(po): pelagic only

(ph);  species with a photo in the FONT web-site

A booklet is available from Focus On Nature Tours listing all the birds that have been found during over a decade of FONT tours in Japan, with more information than given here, noting, for example, the Japanese islands where, and the months when, sightings have occurred. Please e-mail us if you'd like to receive a copy.    

In the following list, months when the birds have been seen are indicated


Links:

Upcoming FONT Birding & Nature Tours in Japan

Cumulative List of Birds found during FONT Tours in Japan  (with photos)

List of Mammals found during FONT Tours in Japan

Directory of Photos in this Website






Birds: 

  1. Bulwer's Petrel ______  may  (po)

  2. Streaked Shearwater ______  may  (po)

  3. Short-tailed Shearwater ______  may  (po)

  4. Sooty Shearwater ______  may  (po)

  5. Swinhoe's Storm Petrel ______  may  (po)

  6. Little Grebe  ______  jan,feb

  7. Brown Booby ______  may  (po) 

  8. Japanese (or Temminck’s) Cormorant  ______  jan,feb (p)

  9. Black-crowned Night Heron  ______  jan,may,nov

  10. “Eastern” Cattle Egret  ______  jan,feb,may,jul

  11. Little Egret  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  12. Yellow-billed (or Intermediate) Egret  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  13. Great Egret  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  14. Grey Heron  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  15. Striated Heron  ______  feb,may,nov

  16. Pacific (or Eastern) Reef Heron  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  17. Cinnamon (or Chestnut) Bittern  ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  18. Yellow (or Chinese Little) Bittern ______  nov

  19. Eurasian Spoonbill (JPr)  ______  feb,nov

  20. Black-faced Spoonbill (t2) (JPr)  ______  jan,feb,nov

  21. Mandarin Duck (nt)  ______  nov

  22. Eurasian Teal  ______  jan,feb,nov

  23. Gadwall  ______  jan

  24. Mallard  ______  jan,feb

  25. Eastern Spot-billed Duck  ______  may,nov

  26. Northern Pintail   ______  jan,feb,may

  27. Northern Shoveler   ______  feb,nov

  28. Common Pochard   ______  jan

  29. Tufted Duck  ______  jan

  30. Black (-eared) Kite  ______  jan

  31. Osprey  ______  jan,feb,may,jul

  32. Northern Goshawk  ______  jan

  33. Eurasian Sparrowhawk  ______  jan

  34. Japanese Sparrowhawk   ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  35. Grey-faced Buzzard  ______  jan,feb,nov

  36. Common Kestrel  ______  jan,feb,nov

  37. Peregrine Falcon  ______  jan,feb,nov

  38. Okinawa Rail (t2) (JPe) ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  39. Ruddy-breasted Crake  ______  jan,may

  40. Baillon’s Crake  ______  jan

  41. White-breasted Waterhen ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  42. Common Moorhen  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  43. Greater Painted Snipe ______  jan,feb,may

  44. Pheasant-tailed Jacana (JPr) ______  nov

  45. Black-winged Stilt  ______  jan,may

  46. Pied Avocet (JPr)  ______  jan

  47. Little Ringed Plover  ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  48. Kentish Plover  ______  jan,feb

  49. Lesser Sand Plover  ______  jan,feb  (has been called Mongolian Plover)  

          

  50. Pacific Golden Plover ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  51. Grey (or Black-bellied) Plover ______  jan,feb

  52. Grey-headed Lapwing (nt)  ______  feb

  53. Northern Lapwing  ______  jan

  54. Red-necked Stint  ______  jan,feb

  55. Temminck’s Stint  ______  feb

  56. Long-toed Stint  ______  jan,feb

  57. Ruff / Reeve  ______  jan,nov

  58. Dunlin  ______  jan,feb

  59. Ruddy Turnstone  ______  jan,feb.may

  60. Eurasian Woodcock   ______  jan,nov

  61. Amami Woodcock (t3) (JPe)   ______  jan,feb,nov

  62. Common Snipe  ______  jan,feb,nov

  63. Pintail Snipe (JPr)  ______  jan,feb,nov

  64. Swinhoe’s Snipe (JPr)  ______  jan,feb,nov

  65. Spotted Redshank (JPrw)  ______  jan

  66. Common Redshank (JPr)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  67. Common Greenshank  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  68. Marsh Sandpiper  ______  jan,may,nov

  69. Green Sandpiper  ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  70. Wood Sandpiper  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  71. Terek Sandpiper ______  may,jul

  72. Grey-tailed (or Polynesian) Tattler ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  73. Common Sandpiper  ______  jan,feb,may

  74. Black-tailed Godwit  ______  may

  75. Bar-tailed Godwit  ______  jan,feb,may

  76. Eurasian Curlew  ______  jan,feb

  77. Eastern Curlew (nt)  ______  jan,feb  
                (has been called
    Far Eastern Curlew)

  78. "Eurasian” Whimbrel  ______  jan,may,jul,nov

  79. Saunder’s Gull (t2) (JPr)  ______  jan,feb,nov

  80. Common Black-headed Gull ______  jan,feb

  81. Black-tailed (or Japanese) Gull (JPneb)  ______  jan,feb

  82. Gull-billed Tern (JPr)  ______  nov

  83. Black-naped Tern  ______  may,jul

  84. Roseate Tern (nt)  ______  may  

  85. Little Tern ______  may,jul

  86. Whiskered Tern (JPr) ______  jan,nov

  87. Common (or Feral) Pigeon (JPi) ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  88. Oriental Turtle Dove  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  89. Whistling Green Pigeon (nt)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul

  90. Japanese (or Black) Wood Pigeon (nt) (J:neb)  ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  91. Lesser Cuckoo  ______  may  

  92. Japanese Scops-Owl  ______  jan
     
               (was part of Collared Scops-Owl)

  93. Oriental Scops-Owl  ______  may

  94. Ryukyu Scops-Owl (JPneb)   ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  95. Brown (or Oriental) Hawk-Owl ______  jan,may,nov

  96. White-throated (or Northern) Needletail   ______  may

  97. Fork-tailed Swift   ______  may,jul

  98. Ruddy Kingfisher ______  may,jul

  99. Common Kingfisher  ______  jan,feb,may,jul

  100. Okinawa (or Pryer’s) Woodpecker (t1) (JPe) ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  101. Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  102. Barn Swallow   ______  jan,feb,may

  103. Pacific Swallow  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  104. Asian House Martin ______  jan,feb

  105. “Siberian” Buff-bellied Pipit ______  jan  
               
    (was part of Water Pipit)  

  106. Grey Wagtail  ______  jan,feb,nov

  107. White Wagtail
                (subspecies
    lugens: was Black-backed W.) ______ jan,feb,nov
                (subspecies leucopsis
    )   ______  feb

  108. Japanese Wagtail (JPe) (OKr)  ______  jan

  109. Brown-eared Bulbul (J:neb)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  110. Light-vented Bulbul ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  111. Ryukyu Minivet (JPe) ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  112. Ryukyu Robin (nt) (JPe)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  113. Daurian Redstart   ______  jan,feb,nov  

  114. Red-flanked Bluetail  ______ jan 
    (also called
    Siberian Bluechat, or Orange-flanked Bush-Robin)

  115. Blue Rock Thrush (red-bellied form)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  116. Brown-headed Thrush (JPneb)   ______  jan

  117. Pale Thrush   ______  jan,feb,nov

  118. Dusky Thrush   ______  jan,feb,nov

  119. Japanese Bush Warbler  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  120. Zitting Cisticola   ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov  
    (was called
    Fan-tailed Warbler)  

  121. Ryukyu Flycatcher (t2) (JAe)  ______  jan,feb  
               
    (has been part of Narcissus Flycatcher, resident in Nansei Shoto)

  122. Japanese Paradise Flycatcher (nt)  ______  may

  123. Varied Tit (JPneb)  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  124. Great Tit   ______  jan,feb,may,nov

  125. Japanese White-eye  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  126. Brown Shrike (JPrw)  ______  jan

  127. Large-billed Crow  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  128. Common Starling (JPr)  ______  jan,feb

  129. White-cheeked (or Grey) Starling (OKr)  ______  jan,feb,may

  130. White-shouldered (or Grey-backed) Starling (JPr)  ______  jan,feb

  131. Red-billed (or Silky) Starling (nt) (JPr)  ______  feb

  132. Eurasian Tree Sparrow  ______  jan,feb,may,jul,nov

  133. Scaly-breasted (or Spotted) Munia (JPi)  ______  jan,feb,may,nov  
                (also called
    Nutmeg Mannikin)

  134. Eurasian Siskin ______  jan

  135. Grey Bunting   ______  feb