Another trip to Japan and more interesting wildlife for me. On the way to a coastal sightseeing area, we came across a small covey of Japanese Quails (Coturnix japonica). They were busy scratching for food whilst we took pictures.

While on some level these posts are “Look at this neat bird I saw!” I will always be fascinated by ground dwelling birds, especially smaller ones. It is certainly shaped by my experiences in Hawaiian forests. Little ground dwelling rails would have been a major component of many Hawaiian ecosystems. Only the 2 rails more closely associated to water (coots, moorhens) survive to the present day. Every single forest species is now extinct. The beloved wet forests that I work in so often are missing this key component, this key interaction that images like this are the closest I can get to them.

As far and different as this video of Japanese quails is, I will always smile and remember what once was a similar interaction in forests and scrublands throughout Hawai`i.