I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Japan. Not a lot of birds but some nice viewing – many good observations of the impressive Grey Heron.
But this lovely passerine I watched on the island of Naoshima in the inland sea, I am unable to identify. Any ideas? Pictures of male and female attached.
Incidentally, when I returned to Sydney, I travelled up to the North Shore to collect my car from my daughter’s place, still in an overnight-travel haze (me, not the car), and the first bird I am aware of is, firstly the unearthly call,
then a good fly-over of a Channel-billed Cuckoo. That perked me up for the rest of the day.
David Rosalky