Coal Tit
Periparus ater
Lake Mashu, Hokkaido
Japan, the land of the rising sun, is home to some spectacular habitats hosting incredible species of wildlife. I had the opportunity to visit the island of Hokkaidō and spend some time in its wilderness photographing the spectacular wildlife that inhabit this island. Hokkaido is Japan’s second largest island and although there were Japanese settlers who had ruled the southern tip of the island since the 16th century, Hokkaido was considered foreign territory that was inhabited by the indigenous people of the island, known as the Ainu people. Located in the north of Japan near Russia (Sakhalin Oblast) Hokkaido has coastlines on the Sea of Japan (to the west), the Sea of Okhotsk (to the north), and the Pacific Ocean (to the east). The center of the island is mountainous, with volcanic plateaux. Hokkaidō has multiple plains such as the Ishikari Plain 3,800 km², Tokachi Plain 3,600 km², the Kushiro Plain 2,510 km² (the largest wetland in Japan) and Sarobetsu Plain 200 km².
The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu (Aomori Prefecture) while the La Pérouse Strait separates Hokkaidō from the island of Sakhalin in Russia and the Nemuro Strait separates Hokkaidō from Kunashir Island in the Russian Kuril Islands. We were on our way from Lake Mashū to Lake Kussharo and stopped to have some some lunch. After eating I wandered around behind the property and came across this Coal Tit.
Lake Mashū
Japan’s mysterious ‘lake of the gods’ - often shrouded in mist, Lake Mashū is the clearest lake in Japan – and seeing its surface is said to seal your fate.
Lake Mashū (摩周湖, Mashū-ko) (Ainu: Kamuy-to) is an endorheic crater lake formed in the caldera of a potentially active volcano. This mirror-like caldera lake sits within the Akan-Mashu National Park on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan, and it is considered sacred by Japan’s indigenous Ainu people. It has been called the clearest lake in the world. Mashu is a 6-km-wide Holocene caldera that truncates a stratovolcano constructed on the East South East rim of the large Kussharo caldera. The steep-walled caldera, filled by Lake Mashu, is one of the scenic highlights of Hokkaido. Following the caldera collapse about 7,000 years ago, a small andesitic stratovolcano, Kamuinupuri, was formed beginning about 4,000 years ago, creating a reentrant into the South Eastern side of the deep caldera lake. A large explosive eruption about 1,000 years ago, the latest dated eruption, created a 1.2 x 1.5 km crater at the summit of Kamuinupuri. The small island of Kamuisshu in the center of Lake Mashu represents the tip of a mostly submerged dacitic lava dome.
Lake Mashū
The mysterious Mashu-ko, or Lake Mashu, is rumoured to be one of the clearest lakes in the world. Because the lake is surrounded by dense fog and 200m crater walls that drop sharply into the water, visiting Lake Mashu’s shores is strictly prohibited by the Japanese Ministry of Environment for safety reasons. The lake’s inaccessibility not only adds to its ancient intrigue, but also helps preserve its unspoilt waters.
The lake is blanketed in fog more than 100 days a year, and at 212m deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Japan and the fog contributes to its mystery especially because the lake is rarely seen in the summers when the tourist season is booming. It is a beautiful crater lake with its steep encircling wall in complete shape. There is a 300 meter high overhanging cliff in the western part of the crater wall. In the center of the lake there is an oval-shaped small island, Bentenjima (Kamuisshu in Ainu language), 70 m x 50 m in size. The central portion of the island stands 25 m above the water surface. The maximum depth of the lake is 211.5 m and the lake bottom is almost flat and covered by pumice deposits. Because it has no significant inlets or outlets, Lake Mashu has remained pristine for millennia, drawing visitors for hundreds of years. In addition to being known as one of Japan’s most beautiful lakes, Lake Mashu is also among the clearest lakes in the world, with a visibility of 20 to 30m. The Environment Agency prohibits entry to the lakeshore area and allows only viewing from observation towers. It is believed that the lake water seeps out through porous bottom sediments, since the water level remains fairly constant. The lake is oligotrophic and the lake water appears indigo-blue. The transparency of 41.6 m measured in August 31,1931 was said to be the highest in the world, surpassing that of Lake Baikal at that time (40.5 m). The transparency has, however, decreased substantially in recent years.
In the Ainu language, Lake Mashu is often referred to as Kamuito, meaning “the lake of the gods”, and locals are known to journey as close to the lake as they can for inspiration during difficult times. The Ainu people believe that a female spirit lives within the lake, and Ainu legend has it that if a visitor sees the surface of its usually mist-covered water, he or she will experience bad luck in one of two ways: men will not be able to get ahead in their careers for a while, and women will not have children until later in life.
Lake Kussharo - In Ainu “Kuccharo,” means “The place where a lake becomes a river.”
Like much of Japan, Hokkaido is seismically active. Consequently, hot springs and volcanic vents can be found all across the island. Lake Kussharo, an inland lake in the western region of Hokkaido, is a caldera lake, a remnant of a long-ago erupted volcano. It is the largest of three caldera lakes that make up Akan National Park. And as with most geographic names in Hokkaido, the lake derives its name from the Ainu and the Ainu word “Kuccharo,” means “The place where a lake becomes a river.”
Its violent, seismic past is evident even today, with natural hot springs bubbling up along its shoreline, heating both the water and gravelly shores. It is here where the Whooper Swans gather to find refuge from Hokkaido’s brutally cold winters. The scientific name is from cygnus, the Latin for "swan".
The myth of Kussharo
The lake is known as Japan’s Loch Ness, after some reported sightings of a lake monster in early 20th century. The monster is referred to as Kusshii, is most likely borrowed from the Loch Ness’ Nessie. The lake is breathtaking in its beauty and the banks are lined with Sakhalin spruce, found only in Japan & Russia. Across the white lake, in the far distance when the mist clears, one can make out Mt. Mokoto.
Lake Kussharo
Geographically close to Eastern Russia, in winter, the lake welcomes hundreds of swans that fly south from Siberia. They return every year, unfailingly, as if to fulfill a promise migrating hundreds of miles to wintering sites like Lake Kussharo. The surface of the lake is usually frozen, but along the gravelly beach, the hot springs prevent any ice from forming.
The Whooper (pronounced hooper) Swan, is predominantly found in the frozen Siberian Arctic where they spend most of their time, before migrating as far south as Japan in the winter. They have a deep honking call and, despite their size, are powerful fliers. In small flocks, they gather along narrow stretches of the lake’s warm water, which is heated by the gurgling hot springs that lay between the shore and the ice sheet that covers the remainder of the lake. Whooper Swans are enormous birds, with wingspans up to 9 feet and weighing upwards of 25 pounds - the heaviest was recorded at 34 pounds. They are so big, in fact, that their legs cannot support them for long periods of time, so they need open water not only to feed but to rest. Whooper Swans pair for life, and their cygnets stay with them all winter; they are sometimes joined by offspring from previous years.
Along with the swans there were numerous Mallard, a dabbling duck, that breeds throughout Eurosiberia. The drakes have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.
There was also the resident Ezo Red Fox who came too close for comfort. Read more about the Ezo Red Fox here and watch the video of a second Ezo Fox spotted on the frozen waters off the Notsuke Peninsula.
Coal Tit
The coal tit (Periparus ater), is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa. The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.
A small, active tit with a combination of a large black bib, white wing bars, and a broad distinctive white stripe on its nape. The Coal Tit displays a dazzling geographic variation - the Himalayan and Chinese birds have a small, spiffy crest; the north African birds have stained yellow cheeks; the European and Siberian birds are the dullest overall, crestless and with buffy flanks. They inhabit coniferous and mixed woodland, forest, parks, and gardens and visit bird feeders. They are associated with foothills and montane areas throughout much of their eastern range. They often join mixed-species flocks in autumn and winter, moving quickly through the foliage and giving high-pitched calls. Their up-and-down song varies across the range. They can be compared with the slightly larger and chunkier Marsh Tit and Willow Tit, which have bigger white cheek patches, drabber overall plumage, and different voices.
The Coal Tit is about 10–12 cm long and weighs between 7.2–12 grams. It is a small, slim-billed, black-crowned tit with some subspecies exhibiting crests with grayish upperparts and two wing bars. The male of the nominate has a black forehead and crown (including crown side down to eye) and nape, tinged bluish (in Balkans/western Türkiye and in extreme southeastern Russia and Sakhalin, can possess a short, ragged crest), a large white nuchal patch; cheek and white ear coverts. The upperparts are a deep bluish gray (a slightly paler blue gray in Russia east to about Lake Baikal), tinged lightly olive brown, more prominently brown to olive on the rump and the upper tail coverts. The tail is dark gray brown and all feathers are finely fringed paler or grayish olive. The upper wing coverts are blackish gray and broadly fringed with bluish gray, the tips of the median and greater coverts are white, alula and the primary coverts are blackish, the latter fringed finely blue gray (in fresh plumage). The flight feathers are gray brown, the tertials are finely fringed grayer and broadly tipped white, the secondaries and primaries are finely fringed gray or olive gray, the inner secondaries are finely tipped white. The chin and throat (including throat sides) to the side of the upper breast are black, the breast and belly is white, the flanks to the vent and undertail coverts are grayish to a light cinnamon buff. The axillaries and underwing coverts are a light buffish white; in worn plumage, the white nuchal patch can show some dark bases, the upperparts duller or darker bluish gray, with pale fringes and the tips of wing coverts abraded and grayer, the edges of the flight feathers worn or abraded, cheeks dingier, underparts also duller, dirty white on breast and belly and a grayish buff on the flanks to the vent. The iris is brown or dark brown with a black bill, paler gray sides. The legs lead gray to dark bluish gray. The female is similar to the male but the female has its crown a slightly less glossy, the mantle and scapulars are a shade more greenish, the wing coverts are duller or fringed grayer, and the chin to the upper breast is brownish black. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but the crown and nape are sooty gray, the nuchal patch is smaller and more yellowish white, the upperparts are dark gray with brownish or greenish-olive wash, the median and greater coverts are fringed dark gray and tipped off white, the flight feathers are as in the adult or fringed greenish or olive, the cheeks are a washed pale yellow, the chin to breast is dark brown or grayer, and the rest of the underparts are yellowish except the pale buff flanks and undertail coverts.
While searching for food, the coal tit flocks keep contact with incessant short dee or see-see calls. The species' song – if "song" it can be called – is a strident if-he, if-he, if-he, heard most frequently from January to June, but also in autumn. The song resembles that of the great tit, but much faster and higher in pitch. One variant of this song ends with a sharp ichi. North African birds also have a currr call similar to that of the crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus) which is not found in Africa.
Twenty-one subspecies recognized.
A number of coal tit subspecies are distinguished. The differences in colouration are quite pronounced in some of them, while their differences in size are more subtle. Coal tits from Asia follow Bergmann's rule, being larger in colder regions; those from further west, however, do not, as the birds from the uplands around the Mediterranean are larger than those from northern Europe. Across its range, tail length in relation to body length increases along a cline running from southwest to northeast.
Coal Tit (British) Periparus ater britannicus/ hibernicus
Periparus ater hibernicus: Distributed in Ireland. Subspecies hibernicus resembles britannicus, but the upperparts are a dull greenish olive (less buff), cheeks, ear coverts, nape patch and underparts are pale yellow (whiter when worn) except for warm buff to cinnamon-buff flanks and undertail coverts, bib patch of female smaller.
Periparus ater britannicus: Distributed in Great Britain and extreme northeastern Ireland. The subspecies britannicus is as nominate, but in fresh plumage, the cheeks, ear coverts, and nape patch are creamy white, the upperparts are grayish olive buff and less bluish, the edges of the remiges and rectrices olive (and white tip only on upper tertial), the bib slightly less extensive, flanks to vent and undertail coverts pale rufous buff to cinnamon buff (paler when worn), variable, in Scotland upperparts olive gray and flanks to undertail coverts brownish buff (“pinicolus”).
Coal Tit (Continental) Periparus ater [ater Group]
Periparus ater ater: Distributed in Northern, central, and eastern Europe, western and southern Asia Minor, northeastern Syria and Lebanon, and Siberia east to Kamchatka (including Sakhalin and Kuril Islands), and south to Altai, northern Mongolia, northeastern China (east to eastern Liaoning), and Korea.
Periparus ater vieirae: Distributed in the Iberian Peninsula. Subspecies vieirae is as nominate, but upperparts washed olive brown, flanks buffish brown, tendency for juveniles to have larger area of sooty-brown bib.
Periparus ater sardus: Distributed in Corsica and Sardinia. Subspecies sardus is as nominate, but the upperparts are a washed olive brown in fresh plumage (slightly less olive brown than previous), flanks to undertail coverts pale buffish brown.
Periparus ater pekinensis: Distributed in Eastern China (southern Liaoning south to northern Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong. Subspecies pekinensis resembles nominate, but has short crest, buff wash on cheeks, ear coverts and nape patch, olive wash on mantle, and paler underparts with flanks grayer.
Periparus ater insularis: Distributed in the Southern Kuril Islands and Japan. Subspecies insularis is as nominate, but the tips of median upper wing coverts buffish, and underparts paler or more creamy to cream buff.
Coal Tit (Atlas) Periparus ater ledouci/atlas
Periparus ater atlas: Distributed in Morocco. Subspecies atlas is similar to nominate, but the upper parts are a dull grayish green, cheeks, ear coverts and nape patch yellowish white, bib slightly more extensive than other subspecies (reaching to upper breast), lower breast and center of belly yellowish white, flanks deep buffish gray.
Periparus ater ledouci: Distributed in Northern Algeria and northwestern Tunisia. Subspecies ledouci resembles atlas, but the upper parts green with grayish-olive wash (slightly duller and grayer on female), cheeks, ear coverts, nape patch, lower breast and belly washed pale yellow, flanks olive gray.
Coal Tit (Cyprus) Periparus ater cypriotes
Periparus ater cypriotes: Distributed in Cyprus. Subspecies cypriotes has black on head more extensive (white face patch more restricted), reaching to upper mantle, upperparts rich brown, tips of median coverts warm buff, edges of remiges and rectrices brownish, larger bib extending to center of breast, breast to center of belly pale pinkish buff, flanks and lower underparts rufous brown.
Coal Tit (Caucasus) Periparus ater [phaeonotus Group}
Periparus ater moltchanovi: Distributed in Southern Crimea. Subspecies moltchanovi is similar to nominate, but bill slightly larger, mantle slightly paler blue gray, underparts also paler, belly, flanks and undertail coverts whitish.
Periparus ater derjugini: Distributed in Southwestern Caucasus south to northeastern Türkiye. Subspecies derjugini has longer wing and bill than nominate, mantle slightly browner or grayer and lightly tinged olive, flanks to undertail coverts light sepia brown or grayer.
Periparus ater michalowskii: Distributed in the Caucasus (except southwest) and central and eastern Transcaucasia. Subspecies michalowskii is as nominate, but mantle and scapulars paler olive brown, and flanks to undertail coverts washed pale buffish.
Periparus ater phaeonotus: Distributed in Southeastern Azerbaijan, northern Iran, and southwestern Turkmenistan; perhaps only winter visitor to Zagros Mountains (southwestern Iran), where no records since the early 1900s. Subspecies phaeonotus is also similar to gaddi, but darker or more cinnamon brown above, and has paler underparts, with buff on flanks to undertail coverts. Some taxonomies recognize subspecies gaddi and chorassanicus, which are herein subsumed into phaeonotus. Taxon gaddi resembles subspecies michalowskii, but the mantle and scapulars richer or darker brown, and flanks to undertail coverts also washed darker buff brown. Subspecies chorassanicus is similar to gaddi, but mantle paler gray, tinged sandy brown.
Coal Tit (Black-crested) Periparus ater melanolophus
Periparus ater melanolophus: Distributed in Eastern Afghanistan, northwestern Pakistan, and Himalayas east to west-central Nepal. Subspecies melanolophus is very distinctive by virtue of darker mantle, rufous breast sides and flanks, and dark gray belly.
Coal Tit (Himalayan) Periparus ater [aemodius Group]
Periparus ater rufipectus: Distributed in Central and eastern Tien Shan from extreme southeastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan east to extreme northwestern China (western Xinjiang). Subspecies rufipectus is similar to nominate, but has short erect black crest, mantle slightly duller and grayer, tips of median coverts buffish or yellowish, tips of greater coverts pale buffish white, also duller below, breast and belly pale pinkish buff, flanks to undertail coverts warm buffish brown or buffish tan, juvenile lacks crest, has crown and bib browner (bib often has smudged lower edge), yellowish wash on cheeks and ear coverts, upperparts more olive tinged.
Periparus ater aemodius: Distributed in Eastern Himalayas to northeastern Myanmar, southeastern and eastern Tibet. Subspecies aemodius is as rufipectus, but has a longer crest, paler underparts, extensively clear pinkish buff on breast and belly.
Periparus ater martensi: Distributed in Himalayas in central Nepal. Subspecies martensi is similar to aemodius, but slightly larger, has darker mantle and back, and underparts more reddish ochre, except gray flanks.
Periparus ater eckodedicatus: Distributed in Sichuan.
Coal Tit (Chinese) Periparus ater ptilosus/ kuatunensis
Periparus ater kuatunensis: Distributed in Southeastern China (southern Anhui south to northwestern Fujian). Subspecies kuatunensis is similar to pekinensis, but has longer crest, nape patch nearly white, blue-gray upperparts faintly tinged olive on back, cheeks tinged pale buff, and underparts creamy buff with flanks grayish.
Periparus ater ptilosus: Distributed in Taiwan. Subspecies ptilosus is very similar to kuatunensis, but crest longer, upperparts slightly darker, and generally whiter or less buffish on underparts.
The Coal Tit is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity. In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,000–3,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir (Abies densa) as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock (Tsuga dumosa) and rhododendrons.
The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather; only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration. Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances; for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.
Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits. This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper (Certhia). Its food is similar to that of the others; it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir (Abies) and larch (Larix) cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders (Alnus) and birches (Betula). It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.
Coal Tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget. They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls. After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower. The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability. Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits. In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits have been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.
A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole; holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied. The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining. Seven to eleven red-spotted white eggs are laid, usually in May; this species breeds usually once per year.
Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.
The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas (Ceratophyllus gallinae) reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas.
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