One of the locations in Japan I call home is Hokkaido, and I love to visit as often as I can, especially for my annual Hokkaido photo tour that includes wildlife, minimalist landscapes, Hokkaido bird watching, and much, much more. Winter is the best time to photograph the Shima Enaga, or in English, a subspecies of the Long-tailed Bushtit. They are also sometimes referred to 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 the Shima Enaga before you see them; they have a constant and high pitched call often characterized as a ‘tsee-tsee-tsee.’ Outside of the breeding season, they live in flocks of 10 - 20 birds, composed of parents and offspring that mostly make up the flock; they like to stick together.
Having spent more than 20 years photographing in Hokkaido, I am familiar with the different habits of the Shima Enaga during breeding and non-breeding seasons. From approximately April to June/July, the breeding season, the flocks of 10 - 20 birds break up, and the Shima Enaga form monogamous pairs. Male birds stay within the territories, while females tend to explore neighboring territories. If a monogamous pair of Shima Enaga are disrupted during the beginning of nesting, it has been reported that due to high predation rates, the Shima Enagas may choose to build a new nest or even take a new mate. This behavior helped me understand why female Shima Enaga visit neighboring territories; breeding with another mate potentially of a higher rank in the flock will make for more successful breeding opportunities.
While exploring Japan’s north island on my annual Hokkaido Wildlife Birding Photography Expedition Workshop, I tend to look to the trees between 2.5 and 10 meters to catch the Shima Enaga emerging from their nests or taking flight in search of food. I can’t wait to get back in the field this winter to photograph this bonny bird.