birds birds birbs (and also some others)

There are birds in Japan! (cue shock) They are different, but not entirely so, from those in the US.

Pigeons (ハト)

Same friends all over the world. Visible from our AirBnB. Sometimes they leave feathers on our balconies.

There's a little old lady on this street who has 9 cats (because she took in cats from people who abandoned them after having to return to the office), and she also watches over the pigeons. One day Colin and I saw a pigeon who seemed not to be doing so well, and then we ran into her offering it food and saying (in Japanese) "if you don't eat I'm gonna have to catch you and take you to the doctor!"

There are also other kinds of pigeon, like this turtle dove.

Ravens (カラス)

These guys are everywhere. They're huge and love to stand there cawing in your general direction. Their "aaaa"s sound like human voices.

These ravens were taking a splash in the pond at Yoyogi park.

Caw.

Little Grebe (カイツブリ)

Adorable little water birds. Spotted in Yoyogi Park and also the Imperial Gardens. They swim around and then dive underwater to catch fish.

This was a parent and child pair based on the fact that the less colorful one of them would dash over to its parent chirping to receive food.

Oriental Cuckoo (ツツドリ)

I only saw this one very briefly from a distance im Yoyogi Park's bird sanctuary, but I've never seen a real cuckoo before!

Japanese Tit (シジュウカラ)

Lisa giggles when I talk about these. They look, sound, and behave very much like chickadees! which means I find them irresistibly adorable.

Look, they're like chickadees with little belly stripes.

We also saw them in the woods in Nikko, but it's much easier to see them when they're flitting about in Tokyo near where people hang out (and presumably drop food they can mooch off of).

Varied tit (ヤマガラ)

Another form of tit but differently colored! Spotted in the Imperial Gardens.

Look at this cutie.

Warbling white-eye (メジロ)

These adorable tiny birds flit about cheeping in groups at the top of trees. I haven't seen them close up, but their eyes are very distinctive and visually recognizable.

Maybe sometime I'll get to see them closer up.

Brown-eared bulbul (ヒヨドリ)

What's a bulbul? Maybe related to thrushes? The name is fun to say.

They're very squeaky and seem plentiful in Tokyo. They also appear to move in groups, at least somewhat.

See, you can see its little brown ears.

nyoom.

Japanese bush-warbler (ウグイス)

This little friend showed up right near the path we were walking on in Hakone. I didn't catch it when it was near, but it did make cute chattering sounds.

Right after this it hopped into some reeds and started warbling under its breath, which was incredibly cute.

White-cheeked starling (ムクドリ)

I didn't really get these in a good photo but Colin did. Notable because they look exactly like a Pokemon (ムックル).

Black Kite (トビ)

OMG these raptors. We saw one from afar in Hakone, but in Shonan/Enoshima, there were tons of them swooping around everywhere, along with signs warning people not to walk around with food because the kites would snatch it. I want a kite to descend upon me.

This one was investigating its foot!

Look at all of them hovering over the beach.

White wagtail (ハクセキレイ)

A few of these friends were hanging out on the oceanside rocks near the Enoshima caves. They make little squeaky calls and, true to their names, bop their tails up and down.

Bonus: this one was hanging out near the Tobu-Nikko train station, where various vendors were selling various forms of yuba manjuu. I was just walking by when it landed right in front of me and then started picking crumbs off the ground.

Blue rock-thrush (イソヒヨドリ)

The sign in the Enoshima caves promised a brilliant blue and orange bird. I saw what was probably the female form, a more spotted grey color, hopping up and down the cliff faces.

Also, from afar, maybe this was a blue one sitting on a tree?

Long-tailed tit (エナガ)

Seen only on our Nikko hike flitting about in a group at the very top of a tree. They were so far away the photos are hazy, but just clear enough to identify the long tail and little black stripe on their heads.

I have seen shimaenaga on the internet a lot (little white orbs, basically) and was excited to see a relative of theirs in real life.

Stonechat (ノビタキ)

We saw this bird because a group of Serious Business birders on the Nikko hiking trail were all set up with their super long lenses on tripods looking out at a grassy opening. Colin got good photos. I got this (cute!) fuzzy blob of pixels.

Mallard? (マガモ)

I'm not certain this was a mallard since only half its head is green, but there are pictures on the internet of half-green-headed mallards, so. This one was clever and put its beak into the current to allow food to just flow into its mouth.

Other creatures

A snake in the Imperial Gardens!

A skink (also in the Imperial Gardens) that ate an entire grub the size of its body!

And a squirrel! I spotted this one because a group of Japanese twentysomethings spotted it and one of them squealed, "サル！" (a monkey!), and another said "no that's a squirrel, which is not like a monkey in any way" and they all laughed about it.

Later, slightly down the road, they saw me again and one of them was like "hey it's the dude* who was taking pictures of the squirrel with a point and shoot" (*actually a non-gendered word that leans slightly masculine and has a similar feel to dude), and in my head I was kinda like "uhh, you all were the ones squealing over it in the first place??"

I'm sure there will be more birds, and probably ones I forgot, so I'll consider this post part one of unknown.