Birds in our Japan Garden - Tokyo

Japanese White Eyed birds are a beautiful color green. They love cherry blossoms but also perform amazing acrobatics in our garden to catch gnats and mosquitoes in flight. They are also quite fond of the blooms of our Rosemary plants and any fruit we put out such as Mikans, Oranges or Apples.

Today I was inspired to share with you some of the many birds we see in our garden in the Tokyo area, especially at this time of the year. At one point today, there were 5 different types of birds in the garden at the same time, all providing a great service of natural bug control for us!

Some of the photos are my own, taken in our garden, but since it's hard to get the birds to pose well for me, I have included some photos from the internet for a closer and prettier look at each type of bird. One person called Ingo Waschkies (click here) I found has fantastic pictures on the internet of some of the common birds seen in Japan (along with a nice gallery of birds from other places besides Japan).

Who would have thought we could enjoy such a parade of birds in our little postage stamp of a garden in Tokyo, right from the sofa! It makes us cherish our little garden even more.

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Brown Eared Bulbul (Hiyodori)
This bird loves our little Mikan tree (tangerines). Here is one having an
afternoon snack of fresh Mikan in our garden.

Another more clearer picture of this type of Bulbul, these are very common in Japan.

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Dusky Thrush (Tsugumi)

This bird was busy for about 3 hours today running around in the flower beds and the Dichondra lawn finding and pulling out of the ground, cut-worms and Japanese Beetle grubs. I was thrilled since these worms and grubs often are the cause of damage in my garden.

Another picture of a Dusky Thrush
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White Wagtail (Hagusekirei)
This bird is very common around where we live since there are some open spaces, especially around the riverside of the Edo-gawa. Daisy thinks they are fun to chase.
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Daurian Redstart (Jobitaki)
This little bird is awful cute, it flits around the garden and it's tail bounces around after it lands each time. We don't see these everyday but have them visit quite a bit in the late winter.

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Grey Starling (Mukudori)
This bird is pretty shy about getting to close to humans, but today there were two in the garden busily finding things to eat. I was surprised to see them since they normally don't' come down on the ground in our garden. Usually we see them in large groups up on the telephone wires or hundreds of them in one tree making quite a bit of noise, and they can be rather messy for anyone and anything under a tree in such circumstances!

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Japanese White Eye (Mejiro)

Another picture of the sweet little Mejiro. Their song is as sweet as they look.

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Azure Winged Magpie (Onaga)
This is quite a beautiful bird and very big! It is related to crows and jackdaws. One day, one of these swooped down into our garden and plucked a large Cicada (Semi) off the trunk of our tree as we sat there watching. We didn't even realize the Cicada was there! These birds must have the best eyesight! We see them flying in small groups around the area where our condo is and around the Edo-gawa. They are a little shy and you don't often get to see them very closely.

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Eastern or Oriental Turtle Dove (Kiji Bato)
Here is a picture of one of the friendlier doves that visit our garden. They love to sit and sun in the lawn and as in this photo, various other places in the garden. Before we got Daisy, if we left the patio door open, they would sometimes wander right into the house! They are such a beautiful Dove and you can see by the pattern on their wings why they are called Turtle Doves.

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Bull-Headed Shrike (Mozu)
One of these was in the garden last summer and caught a baby lizard. I was not real happy since I do like the lizards that dwell in our garden, but a bird's gotta eat right? I'm sure it's not easy for the birds in the Metropolitan Tokyo area! I hear that despite their gentle appearance, these birds are considered almost a bird of prey and will even catch sparrows and small mammals!

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Great Tit (Shijyukara)
Another cute bird we love to see in the garden. We don't see these in the summertime, but usually there are a pair that come around to our garden every year in the winter and spring. We put out a bird house in hopes they would nest here but so far not yet. They love gnats and also nuts that we put out for them. Their song is a delicate melody.