Japan : Tateyama and Kanazawa - Sept 2026

Tateyama - Birding around Murodo

A non-birding trip to Japan opened up an opportunity to visit a place I have wanted to visit for a very long time, the famous alpine route up Tateyama! Tateyama is famous among birders for the remnant population of Rock Ptarmigans, this is the most reliable place to see them in Japan and are known to be relatively easy to find. In fact, the people of Toyama somewhat view the Ptarmigan as some kind of mascot for their city, so you can find various products or murals of Ptarmigans around the city. Japanese call them Raichō, or Thunderbirds, as they are viewed as holy messengers of the mountain Gods.

Raichō art murals at Toyama Station

You don't actually have to hike all the way up the summit of Tateyama to see Rock Ptarmigans, rather you take three kind of transportation up to Murodo (a train ride, a tram ride and a bus ride), from there you walk out to the footpaths and bird around the general area. Tateyama is closed for half of the year due to heavy snowfall, so it is important to visit when it is opened from spring onwards to late autumn, September is a bit of a low season so it wasn't crowded at all. To reach Murodo, you have to take a train from Toyama, we caught an early train in the morning and it took roughly an hour to reach Tateyama station, from there you take a short tram ride up to Bijodaira station, where you change to a bus that takes you up the winding road towards Murodo at 2,450m asl. Weather wasn't that great when we arrived, but at least it wasn't raining much.

Train towards Tateyama

Tram to Bijodaira station

Main building at Murodo

It didn't take long to locate my first Japanese Accentor, which was a target of mine. This Dunnock like bird is a near endemic species to Japan, where they breed in alpine areas in the summer months but winters in forest at lower altitude. The one I saw was exceptionally friendly and came within a few feet of me.

Japanese Accentor

Locating the Rock Ptarmigans among the rocks can be challenging as I have found out on my last visit to Scotland, I adopted the same tactics by heading towards the large boulder fields and scan for any movements or birds perched out in the open. It didn't take long before we found our first ones right by the footpath! A mother with a few chicks!

Rock Ptarmigan - female

Rock Ptarmigan - chick

We later on found even more, up to ten individuals in one area. You can get ridiculously close to them here, as the Rock Ptarmigans at Murodo are used to having people around, and generally have no fear of humans whatsoever. They probably don't look their best at this time of the year, and males lack the large red eyelids which are more prominent during spring when they are breeding. If you want to see them in their white winter plumage, you will have to come here when they first reopen in spring around mid-April. Either way, it was still a lot of fun watching them at close range.

Rock Ptarmigan - star bird of Tateyama

My second lifer came in form of a few Japanese Leaf Warblers, I heard many singing along the way, it took me a little while to finally get two into view, although it was quite misty when they showed up, but more than good enough for some record photos.

Japanese Leaf Warbler

The only other main target I had up at Murodo was the Spotted Nutcracker, which took a while to track down. In the afternoon I finally found a few actively foraging around the edge of Mikuriga-ike Pond. I have only seen the Southern Nutcracker that was once conspecific with this species, but have since been split. So, I would say my trip up to Tateyama have worked out pretty well.

Spotted Nutcracker - cracker of a bird!

Other than birds, the area is extremely scenic, other than walking around Murodo and Mikuriga-ike Pond, you can also take another shuttle-bus through the long tunnel towards Daikanbo, where you can take a cablecar down to Kurobe and then another short cablecar ride down to Kurobe Dam; the tallest dam in Japan. All in all, a day filled with various means of transportation and great scenery that is well worth doing, and easily done as a day trip from the lovely city of Toyama.

Mikuriga-ike Pond

Scenery around Murodo

Kurobe Dam

Kurobe Lake

Kanazawa - Kanazawa Castle

The beautiful city of Kanazawa is popular among tourists, the many historic districts and old buildings make this a charming city to visit. 

If you find yourself with a few hours to spare in the morning, a visit to Kanazawa Castle can yield a few common but good birds. My main target was to hopefully get better photos of Japanese Wagtails, as my last encounter was certainly a little far away. I was not disappointed and found many feeding on the lawns just outside the castle. Funnily enough there seems to be more Japanese Wagtails than White Wagtails here.

Japanese Wagtail

White Wagtail - race lugens

You will likely find feeding flocks with Asian Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Warbling White-eye and Varied Tit all feeding together. I particularly wished to get some better photos of the Varied Tit, as photos I have taken years before doesn't do this species justice. I was delighted to get good views of a pair of these performing well.

Varied Tit

Brown-eared Bulbuls are of course everywhere as you would expect in Japan, there were also a good number of Blue Rock Thrush around the park, at one point I counted around 10 individuals all in one area. Carrion Crows were far more common here than in Tokyo.

Brown-eared Bulbul

Blue Rock Thrush - male

Carrion Crow

My other target here was to hopefully get better photos of Chestnut-cheeked Starlings. I noticed a large flock on my first day walking the castle, but they only flew by. I returned the next day, hoping to locate them in the park, I finally managed to track them down around a fruiting tree. I was able to climb up to the top of the walled view point and get a much better view of them. There were likely to be over 50 in that one single tree at one point. A real treat to see considering how difficult it is a species to see in Hong Kong!

Chestnut-cheeked Starling

Japanese Grosbeak is said to be regularly sighted in the park, although I didn't encounter any despite keeping my eyes and ears out for them. I did manage to catch up to a small flock when we stayed at Yamanakaonsen near Kaga, although they stayed very high up in the tree tops.

Japanese Grosbeak

This is why it is always worth bringing your binoculars and camera along with you on a non-birding trip!

Autumn Heat Continuing

Autumn is officially here, but the heat decided to linger on longer, as we are still experiencing 34°C temperature regularly. Other birders have started reporting Amur Paradise Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and Asian Brown Flycatchers to name a few early migrants. I visited Tai Po Kau but didn't yield much in terms of migrants, except for two Eastern Crowned Warblers which were too high up for photos, plus a single Grey Wagtail. For reasons unknown to me, Amur Paradise Flycatcher seems to have become a much harder bird there, whereas back then I would always see one or two while birding there in August. The best bird I managed was probably a Brown-breasted Flycatcher, which was found away from where everyone else have been seeing them, so this could well be a different individual.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher

Around the same area was a male Hainan Blue Flycatcher, a species that is quite easy in spring and gradually becomes trickier to find during the summer months, by the end of summer most of them have fallen silent and you don't hear their beautiful song anymore. You will more likely hear their quiet ticking call at this time of the year, which was how I picked this one up in the first place.

Hainan Blue Flycatcher - male

Other local 'goodies' were present and showed fairly well, although nothing overly excited I sitll enjoy seeing them after a long summer break from local birding.

Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler

Silver-eared Mesia

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

White-bellied Erpornis

Another interesting encounter was with a Red Muntjac, while I couldn't really get a good photo, it was still nice to see.

Red Muntjac

Led a few night walks recently as the heat is slightly more manageable at night. Scolopendra hainanum seems to be out and about in good numbers, these impressive centipedes prey on quite large animals, one evening I actually saw one devouring a Gunther's Frog that it just caught.

Scolopendra hainanum

I don't often see Indian Fritillary sleeping, so it was nice to find one in the evening where I can get right up close for a photo. A Samia wangi was no doubt the most impressive moth we have seen lately, I always enjoy seeing this large and beautiful moth, although this one already had a big chunk of its hind wing likely taken off by a bat.

Indian Fritillary

Samia wangi

Two species of frogs I don't photograph as often as others, the LaTouche's Frog, also known locally as the Brown Wood Frog and the Butler's Pygmy Frog, they are definitely not as common as some of our other species, although a bit of rain usually helps draw them out.

LaTouche's Frog

Butler's Pygmy Frog

Finally, not too many exciting snakes lately, partly because I haven't really taken the time to look for any. So, these were all seen during our night walks, including a few different Mock Vipers, I have included two that I photographed, which shows how much individual variation there are within this species, they can range from yellowish, reddish to rather greyish. A juvenile Red-necked Keelback was also nice to see, I do find them to be more attractive than the adults.

Mock Viper - more yellowish individual

Mock Viper - quite a dark individual

Red-necked Keelback