Visitor From North America

On January 29th, I went to Oita River with two of my Thai friends. It was the first time for me to find other Thai students who are also interested in birding in Beppu. We arrived there quite late and were disappointed to find many people paddling in the river. It seemed like they belong to some sort of a Sunday canoe club. Most of the ducks that were roosting along the riversides were flushed up and flew upstream. The paddlers were there for about half an hour and finally went further downstream. However, since we were late and the birds were disturbed, we didn't get to see many decent birds. I tried to look for the Green Pheasants which I found last time, but the grassy area along the river seemed to be cut recently and was too open for the pheasants, so we didn't see any. At least I managed to introduce many Great Crested and Little Grebes, Eurasian Wigeons, Northern Shovellers, Grey-capped Greenfinches, Great Cormorants and Ospreys. My friends had to leave around 10:30AM, so we said goodbye and I walked back to my favourite spot where I photograph the ducks.

Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

After I arrived at the spot, all of the ducks flushed up and landed in the middle of the river. I set up my hide and waited for them to come back to the feeding area. As I was scanning through the flocks of ducks in the middle of the river, my heart suddenly dropped when my eyes caught a single male Common Teal with shining white stripes of the sides of its breast. I was really surprised to find that I was looking at a Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis), a very scarce winter visitor from North America. I've never expected to find this taxa in Oita before, so I was extremely happy. I kept waiting silently inside the hide hoping that the bird would come closer to the feeding site and it finally did, along with the other Common Teals and Northern Shovellers.

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

At first, the bird seemed to be more wary than the others and even flew out once it noticed my lens moving for the first time, but it later became more accustomed to it and finally came swimming right in front of the hide without feeling intimidated. It was really interesting to be able to observe both subspecies of Common Teal at close range. The white vertical stripes on the breast sides of the Green-winged Teal were much more obvious than I thought. I could see them clearly even from the distance. The bird also lacks the white horizontal line on the lower scapulars which is another critical identification point for distinguishing it from the male Common Teals. I also noticed that the breast seems to be more buffish than the Common Teals as well.

Comparison between Green-winged Teal and Common Teal

Adult male Common Teal (Anas crecca crecca)

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

Excuse me for posting too many repetitive photos of the same bird, but I don't think there will be many chances for me to photograph this rarity here in Japan, especially at this close range. The bird seemed to have exactly the same feeding behaviour with the Common Teals; dabbling in shallow water and occasionally walking on the banks. Wikipedia says that according to the DNA research, the Green-winged Teal is actually more closely related to the totally different looking Speckled Teal (Anas flavirostris) of South America than the Eurasian Common Teal. I find this information quite unbelievable. It is one of the reasons why many authors regard it as a full species. However, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) is still considering it as a subspecies of Common Teal.

Adult male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca carolinensis)

God knows if any of these are female Green-winged Teals.

The National Bird

More than 40 countries now have their own national birds. I was a bit surprised when I first learned that the Green Pheasant (Phasianus versicolor) is Japan's national bird. Usually when thinking of a Japanese bird that can represent Japan well as a whole, I'd think of the Red-crowned or Japanese Crane (Grus japonensis). Just look at its scientific name and those cliches of white large birds dancing in the snow. However, to my surprise, the Red-crowned Crane is actually China's current national bird. And because of the scientific name issue, I've heard people said that China might choose a new national bird. The Golden Pheasant is among the top candidates. I actually agree with this choice. Either the Golden Pheasant or Mandarin Duck would suit fine as their national bird. Anyway, in Japan it seems like the image of the Green Pheasant is not as widely celebrated as the cranes or eagles. I barely see photos of the pheasant in general media, while every winter there are photos and footage of the cranes, both in Hokkaido and Kagoshima, almost everywhere. It's the reason why I haven't been aware that the Green Pheasant is actually the Japanese national bird.

Male Green Pheasant (Phasianus versicolor)

On December 27th, I visited Oita River hoping to photograph some wintering ducks as usual. There were not so many ducks in the river, however. The star bird that completely stole the show of the day was actually the male Green Pheasant that was feeding along the river bank. Actually, there were at least 3 of them. They were quite vocal and once I thought I was about to witness the real cockfight when 2 of the birds began to scream at each other very seriously. It turned out that both of them chose to stay in the shade and scream at each other for about 10 minutes attracting the attention even from the pedestrians before they both stopped and disappeared into the dense vegetation.

Looking from the photos above, you might think that it's an easy job to photograph the bird as it seems to be out in the open, but actually it wasn't easy at all! Even though the birds seemed to favour foraging in the open and neglecting the pedestrians and bikers, they were certainly scared of me pointing large gun-like object towards them. They don't fancy flying much, so most of the time they just slowly (or sometimes quickly if I got really close) crept into the bush. Once they're in, it's not an easy job to get their photos. I had to listen to the sound of them walking through the grass and figure where and when will they come out. It was a fun experience though.

Their typical 'checking out' look

It's really difficult to get the whole body into a frame!

Sometimes they liked to cross the street too, but it's still not easy to capture them while they're switching on their high speed gear. I think the best way to photograph them is to be in a car, since they seemed to neglect vehicles like motorcycles or bicycles and people who were running. It was quite a crazy moment when I was running around chasing after a pheasant that was running wild on the open street. I wonder if anyone saw the whole sequence of that they'd be laughing their heads off. Just running after a pheasant on the street is already funny enough, not to mention of trying to photograph it. Below is how the bird behaved. You can see that it clearly doesn't care standing in the bright light if the people just keep on passing by, not stopping in front of them with a bazooka their hands.

Just keep passing, people!

Today I went to Ono River at Shimohanda because someone found a male Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus) since about 2 weeks ago. I just found the news this morning and hurried out of the room to get there as soon as possible. The Scaly-sided Merganser is one of my most yearning birds. The last record of it was on Monday December 26th, only 1 day before I went to Oita River to get these shots of the pheasants. I kept thinking to myself I should've known this news earlier, since the bird didn't show up today. It was even published on the local newspaper! This is the first record of this endangered species in Oita Prefecture in 4 years. I even met the guy who first found the bird and he took me to the place where he normally used to observe it, but it wasn't there. Just looking at the photo of it in his website makes me feel a little heartache. I was a totally failed twitcher today. Even though I found a beautiful male Baikal Teal and a flock of 10+ Mandarin Ducks, they didn't make me feel any better.