JAPAN

The Winter Japan: Dancing Cranes & Spectacular Sea-Eagles tour visits key sites at the northern and southern ends of two of the main islands, Hokkaido and Kyushu, plus the Japanese Alps on Honshu. In Hokkaido's snowy marshes at Tsurui, we experience the renowned and elegant courtship dances of Red-crowned Cranes. At a minshuku in the Rausu area we hope to see the world largest owl, Blakiston's Fish-Owl, while a harbor boat trip will bring us close encounters with magnificent Steller's Sea-Eagles plus other specialties such as Spectacled Guillemot and Stejneger's Scoter.

The Japanese Alps host a number of target landbirds, from Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Brown Dipper to Long-tailed Rosefinch and Japanese Grosbeak. Here too we'll have a chance to see the famous endemic Snow Monkeys in the hot springs. Our birding on Kyushu, visiting sites such as Kadogawa, Arasaki, and Lake Miike, gives us opportunities for Japanese Murrelet, magnificent flocks of thousands of Hooded and White-naped cranes, the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill, Long-billed Plover, and a great variety of landbirds.

If a warmer clime and spring migration is what you seek instead (or also!), our Japan in Spring tour offers an exciting sampling of birding sites spanning nearly the length of the country, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, with stops at the island of Miyake, the mountain woodlands of Shiga Kogen to the northwest of Tokyo, the subtropical Ryukyu Islands of Amami and Okinawa, and boreal Kushiro Forest Park and Shiretoko Pass on Hokkaido.

The possibilities are delightfully many, running the spectrum from Izu Thrush, Japanese Wood Pigeon, Owston's Woodpecker, Ryukyu Scops Owl, and Amami Woodcock to Lidth's Jay, Ryukyu Minivet, Okinawa Rail, the rare Okinawa Woodpecker, Japanese Paradise Flycatcher, Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Red-crowned Crane, White-tailed Eagle, and perhaps even Blakiston's Fish Owl. Mammals can include Sika Deer, Red Fox, and in summer Brown Bear from an inshore boat trip. Japan's location on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway means spring brings waves of shorebirds, warblers, buntings, and raptors.

Whether you choose a winter or spring visit, Japan is a delightful, scenic, and culturally vibrant birding experience.

Photo credit: Our thanks to guide Sam Wilson for the colorful image of Green Pheasant.

We offer many other ASIA birding tours, too!