Birding in Japan is becoming increasingly popular with international photographers, with over 600 bird species recorded, over 60% of these are migratory. Species that are either endemic or sub-regional endemic induced the Blakiston’s Fish-owl, Red-Crowned, Pyer’s Woodpecker, Japanese White-eye, Black Kite, there are over 60 species in this category. Japan is latitudily long at over 3000 kilometres, located in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, climates range from sub artic condition in the north, to subtropical in the south. There are two distinct ecological lines dividing Japans natural indigenous plant and animal life. “The Blakiston’s Line” and the “Watase’s Line.” Due to this uniquely rare ecological condition, Japan is avifauna abundantly rich, making it the perfect location for wildlife and wildlife photographers. Last autumn while in Toyama prefecture leading a private group from Hong Kong on a Japan photo tour on a busy migratory route, I received a call from a fellow photographer in the a.m. telling me they were photographing the “extinct oriental stork” in Niigata prefecture. At first I thought it was a hoax, two minutes later I received an email from my friend, attached was a photo of the stork in the wild. A quick group meeting with clients and we were off, five hours later we were living the birders dream photographing the once thought to be extinct Oriental Stork in the rich ecosystem rice fields of Niigata. We spent the next two days in Niigata with the stork and an array of other migratory birds. Over twenty years I have been exploring and photographing the most exotic migratory birds in the Asian Pacific region, Japan is a birders paradise.