Hokkaido, Japan is my second home, and I love my Hokkaido Nature Photo tour time, especially in winter. This is the best time to photograph my sweetheart bonnie bird, the Shima Enaga (Aegithalos caudatus japonicus). They are so sweet they look like bouncing miniature snowballs, their uniquely all-white face setting them apart as a recognized sub-species of the long-tailed bushtit. They are also known as the silver-throated tit or silver-throated dasher. They are a tiny bird (at 12-16 cm in length, including their tail at 7-9 cm). Males and females are identical. You will often hear before you see them; they have a constant and high pitched call. The Shima-Enaga eat predominantly arthropods and prefer the eggs and astronomically huge moths and butterflies, and they supplement their diet with vegetable matter. The Shima Enaga was first classified as a tit of the Parus group. The Parus has been split from the Aegithalidae and becoming a distinct family containing three sub-group families. Aegithalos (long-tailed tits) are five species birds with a tail. Psaltriparus (North America Bushtit), monotypic. Psaltriparus (pygmy bushtit), monotypic. Outside of the breeding season, July to February, they live in flocks from about a half a dozen to two dozen composed of the family (parents and offspring) from the previous breeding season, together with extra adults that help raise the brood. The reason for the flocking behavior is believed to be due to winter roosting as they are susceptible to cold, and they huddle for warmth on cold nights. When the breeding season begins, the flock breaks up, and the birds attempt to breed in monogamous pairs. Females tend to wander into neighboring territories, while males remain within their winter territories. If you want to photograph the Shima Enaga, you should get to Hokkaido, Japan and either join my annual Hokkaido photo tour or book with me privately for your photography expedition. Finding these birds by yourself would be difficult, if not impossible, and there are only a handful of pro photographers and guides in Japan that know the habitats and habits of these birds. These beautiful fluffy birds also inhabit the entire Palearctic realm, but as I mentioned before, they occur mostly in Hokkaido, Japan.
When photographing these beautiful fluffy pure white cotton ball birds, I suggest a super-telephoto lens. A fixed 800mm f/5.6 or a 600mm f/4 used to be the best choice lens for these birds. But with advancements in camera build with 50 to a 100 megapixel camera sensors common these days, and with the advances in camera lens build and teleconverters, photographers can now use such lenses as a Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 Sports DG APO OS HSM Lens, or the Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens, accompanied by a X2 or X1.4 teleconverter and get gallery worthy images to print. But when I am out on assignment birding I usually bring along my Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Lens or my Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR Lens, for those up close and personal encounters. Though the years I have shot and tested camera gear for various makers, such as Canon, Olympus, FujiFilm, PhaseOne, Panasonic, Sigma, Leica, Nikon, and a few others. These days my go to cameras for the field are the Nikon D850, Nikon Z9 and the Nikon Z7 Mark II. Practically speaking, the modern camera a visual artist uses does not matter, what does matter is the photographer familiarizing oneself with the camera in hand such as menu and buttons. Countless times I have witnessed photographers in the field trying to figure out camera settings or lens settings and missing the shot. On my Japan photo workshops, I have had pros to amateurs that bring along new equipment they are not familiar with, and I have enjoyed several evenings going over gear settings with clients. And in some cases it happens right in the field, so I always keep an eye out to make sure participants on my once in a lifetime Japan photo workshops have their eye in the viewfinder and are pushing that shutter release button. From time to time, I get beginner visual artists that have never used a camera joining my group, and these are some of my favorite participants, because they see everything with the beginner’s mind set. A camera, for me, is simply an extension of my perspective. Years ago, while researching Japanese history and culture, I came upon D.T. Suzuki’s teachings and the beginner’s mindset; his philosophy regenerated my perspective back to the moment when I first picked up a camera. I then understood I had been living his teachings since my youth. Mentors guided me from an early age to respect my environment, my surroundings and to treat all sentient and spiritual beings as my family. Without a beginner’s mindset, an adventurer chasing the light will only show people with preconceived notions, the fallacy of their perceptions and opinions. As mentioned above, my current camera preference is Nikon, but give me a week with any other camera maker, and I will be producing the same quality gallery worthy images. These days, I use Nikon because I like their easy read menu and button layout on the body. Mainly, I like the twin dials one for aperture and one for shutter speed. I am looking forward to photographing the Hokkaido Shima Enaga next February on my annual Hokkaido nature tour expedition including, Mt. Fuji, Snow Monkeys, Blakiston’s Fish Owls, The Steller's Sea Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, other raptors, and the Red-Crowned cranes, plus a wide variety of other wildlife, minimalist Hokkaido landscapes, visiting and photographing an original samurai castle, and spending an afternoon at Japan’s most pilgrimaged to Shinto shrine complex in the valley and lake of the Dragons which has stood since before the Nara, Heian, and perhaps even the Kofun era of Japan.