Our Highlights of Japan tour during spring takes in the very best of what Japan has to offer during this fabulous time of year when all the country’s resident species and summer migrants are present and actively singing, displaying and nesting – indeed a magical time to visit ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’.

The wetlands and forests on Honshu support the extremely localized Japanese Marsh Warbler, Japanese Reed Bunting, Long-billed Plover, Latham’s Snipe, endemic Copper and Japanese Green Pheasants, Japanese Green Woodpecker, Japanese Yellow Bunting, Japanese and Brown-headed Thrushes, Japanese Grosbeak and Japanese Accentor, all of which will be targets on this trip. On the offshore island of Miyake-jima we hope to find the richly coloured and endemic Izu Thrush and Owston’s Tit, while other specialties include Japanese Wood Pigeon, Styan’s Grasshopper Warbler and Ijima’s Leaf Warbler. We conclude the main part of this Japan Spring Highlights tour in the Ryukyu Islands where we spend our time on the small islands of Okinawa and Amami in search of a host of exciting endemics and near-endemics. The endangered Okinawa (Pryer’s) Woodpecker recently discovered and highly threatened Okinawa Rail, stunning Ryukyu & Okinawa Robins, Ryukyu Minivet, Amami Woodcock, Lidth’s Jay and Amami Thrush are just some of the islands’ tantalizing species that we will be searching for during our explorations there!