Okhotsk Chapter
of the Wild Bird Society of Japan
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Below are useful references in English or Japanese (or both) about birds of the Okhotsk region.
• Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia, by Mark Brazil. (Princeton University Press, 2009) ISBN: 978-0-691-13926-5.
Since this guide covers the periphery around the Sea of Okhotsk as well as all of Hokkaido, it may be the definitive guide in English to birds of our region. The focus is on eastern China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and adjacent areas of eastern Russia such as eastern Siberia, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and the Kuriles. Close to 1,000 species, about 1.5 times the number in Japan alone, are covered. Our Checklist of the Okhotsk region, updated March 2025, provides Japanese names (and any revisions in other names) for the birds of our area.
• Birds of Japan, by Mark Brazil. (Christopher Helm, London, 2018) ISBN: 978-1-4729-1386-9.
The most thorough and recent guide to the birds of Japan in English. Over 700 species are covered, slightly more than the 644 species in the Ornithological Society of Japan's most recent checklist, dated 2024. (Different categorizations of species and subspecies may influence exact numbers.)
• A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-east Asia, by Tadao Shimba. (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN: 978-0-300-13556-5.
Useful as a guide to the birds of the Okhotsk region as it includes the wider region of north-east Asia, which the author describes as "the Korean Peninsula, north-east China (provinces of Jilin, Heilongjian, and Lioaning), and the Russian Far-east north to the Arctic coast, incorporating Ussuriland, Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Chukotka", which are areas in the vacinity of the Sea of Okhotsk. The main text covers 554 species with maps of distribution ranges. The Appendix includes a table of English and Japanese names.
• The Birds of Japan, by Mark A. Brazil, Illustrated by Masayuki Yabuuchi. (Christopher Helm, London, 1991) ISBN: 0-7136-8006-7 (hardcover).
This is an amazing, beautiful book. I quote with minor edits from the inside cover: "[The Birds of Japan] is a fully comprehensive review of the status and distribution of Japanese birds. It is based on more than ten years' field experience and incorporates in-depth research into the English and Japanese literature from 1700 to the present day.... In addition, there is information on the best birdwatching sites in the country. The bulk of the book comprises the species accounts. Every species recorded to the end of 1989 is included. For each species there are details of past and current distribution and status...". Details on exactly when and where sightings of rare vagrants, and many others, occurred are particularly impressive. Sources for these details are cited in the Bibliography. The cover of the book even features an illustration of a Stellar's Sea-eagle, endemic to the Sea of Okhotsk periphery.
• A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan, Text by Wild Bird Society of Japan, Illustrations by Shinji Takano. (Wild Bird Society of Japan, Kodansha International, 1982) ISBN: 0-87011-746-7.
From the Introduction: "This is the first English language field guide to the birds of Japan to cover in text and illustrations all of the bird species known to occur in Japan." In March 1982, that number was 524 species plus 13 that were introduced. The illustrations are especially instructive as they effectively highlight the distinctive features of the species.
• Check-list of Japanese Birds, 8th Revised Edition, The Ornithological Society of Japan (2024) ISBN: 978-4-930975-01-0.
In both Japanese and English, and a major update from the previous edition of 2012. More information is here on the OSJ website (opening in a separate window).
• 新訂 北海道野鳥図鑑 (Hokkaido Yachou Zukan [The Wild Birds of Hokkaido], 2nd edition), Text by Daisuke Kawai, Yasuhiro Kawasaki, Akihide Shimada; Illustrations by Jun Morohashi (Arisu-sha, 2013)
This work is the definitive local bird guide for Hokkaido. I'm not saying this because Kawasaki-san heads the Okhotsk Chapter but because it is true. His inspiration to write a bird guide like this came from Collins and some other guides to the birds of Europe (many of which occur in Hokkaido) and it shows. If you are studying Japanese and birds at the same time, I highly recommend this book, and even if you can't read Japanese, the Japanese names of birds are all in Katakana, so it will be very easy for you to learn them (the J Bird Names pages will be of help). Of course, this guide also includes scientific and English names, Ainu and Russian names, and plenty of useful photos. It has an index of scientific names as well. Since this edition was updated to reflect revisions in the 7th edition of the OSJ's Checklist of Japanese Birds, 2012 (noted above), a new edition reflecting the 2024 revision of the Checklist can be expected to appear before long.
• 日本の野鳥 (Nihon no Yachou [Wild Birds of Japan]), 3rd edition, by Takuya Kanouchi, Naoya Abe, Hideo Ueda (Yama-Kei Publishers, 2013)
• 日本の野鳥６５０ (Nihon no Yachou 650 [Wild Birds of Japan 650], by Hirozo Maki and Toshikazu Onishi (Heibonsha, 2014)
These two references are comprehensive guides to wild birds in Japan. Both include English names, scientific names, distribution maps, and a wealth of photos. They also have an index of scientific names, and the latter has an index of English names as well. The former even provides decipherable timelines of months during the year when birds can be sighted. As with the guide to Hokkaido birds above, new editions of these two guides are also expected to appear over the next few months.
• フィールドガイド 日本の野鳥 (A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan), by Shinji Takano (Wild Bird Society of Japan, 2007) ISBN: 978-4-931150-41-6.
For many years a popular guide to the birds of Japan. Uses illustrations of birds rather than photos, illustrations by Shinji Takano. This guide, first pubished in 1982, was updated in 2007, 23 years after Takano had died at the young age of 59. Japanese birdwatchers long considered it the "bible" of Japanese birds. More details (in Japanese) are on a page here at the website of the WBSJ, a press release when the 2007 version was published. Hopefully an update to this guide will appear again soon now that the OSJ 8th (2024) edition of the Checklist has been released, followed by a long-overdue English version, too.
• 野鳥の名前 (The Names of Wild Birds), by Naoya Abe, photos by Takuya Kanouchi (Yama-Kei Publishers, 2008) ISBN: 978-4-635-07017-1.
This handy reference describes the origins of Japanese bird names, and sometimes also the English names, of 479 bird species in Japan. The text is thorough and photos are plentiful. Besides the katakana names, it provides English names, scientific names, and kanji renderings. Index is in katakana only, but birds in the book are ordered taxonomically.
