Coccothraustes coccothraustes japonicus

Hokkaido, Japan

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 Hawfinch.

Lake Mashū

Like much of Japan, Hokkaido too is seismically active. Consequently, hot springs and volcanic vents can be found all across the island. Lake Mashū, called Kamuy-to by the indigenous Ainu people, is an endorheic crater lake formed in the caldera of a potentially active volcano. It is located in the Akan Mashu National Park on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It has been called the clearest lake in the world. Surrounded by steep crater walls 200 metres high it has no significant inlets and no outlet. The lake is one of the clearest in the world and one of the deepest in Japan. On August 1, 1931, the transparency of the water was measured at 41.6 metres (136 ft). Around the same time Lake Baikal was measured 40.5 metres (133 ft). The photo below is taken from the vicinity of Lake Mashū Observatory 1.

Lake Kussharo

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".

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 fulfil 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 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.

Read about my other wildlife from Hokkaido:

View my Hokkaido Playlist here:

Hawfinch

The Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes japonicus) is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Coccothraustes and its closest living relatives are the Chinese Grosbeak (Eophona migratoria) and Japanese Grosbeak (Eophona personata) of East Asia, and the Evening Grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina) and Hooded Grosbeak (Hesperiphona abeillei) of North America. This bird breeds across Europe and temperate Asia (Palearctic), mainly resident in Europe, but many Asian birds migrate further south in the winter. It is a rare vagrant to the western islands of Alaska.

It favours deciduous or mixed woodland, including parkland, with large trees – especially hornbeam – for breeding. The hawfinch builds its nest in a bush or tree, and lays 2–7 eggs. The food is mainly seeds and fruit kernels, especially those of cherries, which it cracks with its powerful bill. This large finch species is usually seen in a pair or small group.

The 16.5–18 cm long hawfinch is a bulky bull-headed bird, which appears very short-tailed in flight. Its head is orange-brown with a black eyestripe and bib, and a massive bill, which is black in summer but paler in winter. The upper parts are dark brown and the underparts orange. The hawfinch is a huge finch, weighing over twice as much as the more familiar chaffinch. It uses its powerful bill to crack open seeds from trees such as cherry, hornbeam and beech, but in summer often feeds on insects as well. The bill of a hawfinch can exert a pressure of over 150 pounds per square inch. That's enough to crush even an olive stone, and the equivalent of a thousand times its own weight.

Hawfinches are found in large areas of mature broadleaved woodland, favouring areas with open glades. Shy birds, they can be extremely difficult to find in summer, remaining high in the canopy and rarely calling. In winter, numbers are boosted by continental migrants, and birds are easier to spot in leafless trees.

The white wing bars and tail tip are striking in flight. The sexes are similar. The call is a hard chick. The song of this unobtrusive bird is quiet and mumbled.

The hawfinch was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner in his Historiae animalium in 1555. He used the Latin name Coccothraustes which is derived from the Greek: kokkos which is a seed or kernel and thrauō meaning to break or to shatter. In 1758 Carl Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia coccothraustes. The hawfinch was moved to a separate genus Coccothraustes by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The English name 'hawfinch' was used by the ornithologist Francis Willughby in 1676. Haws are the red berries of the common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna).

There are six recognised subspecies:

• C. c. coccothraustes (Linnaeus, 1758) – Europe to central Siberia and northern Mongolia

• C. c. buvryi Cabanis, 1862 – Northwest Africa

• C. c. nigricans Buturlin, 1908 – southern Ukraine, the Caucasus, northeastern Turkey and northern Iran

• C. c. humii Sharpe, 1886 – southern Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan and northeastern Afghanistan

• C. c. schulpini Johansen, H, 1944 – southeastern Siberia, northeastern China and Korea

• C. c. japonicus Temminck & Schlegel, 1848 – the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and Japan

The hawfinch is about 18 cm in length, with a wingspan that ranges from 29 to 33 cm. It weighs about 46–70 grams with the male being on average slightly heavier than the female. A robust bird with a thick neck, large round head and a wide, strong conical beak with a metallic appearance. It has short pinkish legs with a light hue and it has a short tail and brown eyes. The plumage of the female is slightly paler than that of the male. The overall colour is light brown, its head having an orange hue to it. Its eyes have a black circle around them, extending to its beak and surrounding it at its edge. Its throat is also black. The sides of its neck, as well as the back of its neck, are gray. The upper side of its wings are a deep black colour. The wings also have three stripes from approximately the middle till their sides: a white, a brown and a blue stripe.

The hawfinch is distributed in the whole of Europe, Eastern Asia (Palearctic including North Japan), and North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). It has also been sighted in Alaska, but this is reported as an accidental presence. It is not found in Iceland, parts of the British Isles, or certain Mediterranean islands. It is however found in southern Europe, such as in Spain and Bulgaria, as well as in central Europe, including parts of England and southern Sweden. The hawfinch's range has extended further north since the 1950s, and is now found as far north as Northern Norway. In Asia it can be found in the Caucasus, northern Iran, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Siberia, Manchuria and North Korea.

The hawfinch typically inhabits deciduous forests during the spring to have offspring, often in trees that bear fruit, such as oak trees. They also incur into human areas, such as parks and gardens. They can also be found in pine woods, as long as there is a source of water in the vicinity. During autumn and winter they seek food-providing forests, especially those with cherry and plum trees. As for height, the hawfinch is present in any altitude up to that which is limited by the size of the trees.

It is a shy species, and therefore difficult to observe and study spending most of the day on top of high branches, above all during breeding season. During the course of the hawfinch's life it can only be seen on the ground while looking for seeds or drinking water and always near trees. While drinking and eating it is fairly aggressive and dominant, towards both its same species or different ones, even bigger birds. It guards a quite small territory when its chicks are born; however, when not bearing any offspring it is known to guard entire woods. This is interpreted as an evolutionary advantage, given colony rearing is seen as safer against nest predators.

The hawfinch feeds primarily on hard seeds from trees, as well as fruit seeds, which it obtains with the help of its strong beak with accompanying jaw muscles. Its jaw muscles exert a force equivalent to a load of approximately 30–48 kg allowing it to break through the seeds of cherries and plums. Other common sources of food include pine seeds, berries, sprouts and the occasional caterpillar and beetle. They can also break through olive seeds. The bird is known to eat in groups, especially during the winter.

Its flight is quick and its trajectory is straight over short distances. During long flights periodical undulations can be observed in their flight pattern. While on the ground scavenging it hops, and they are quick to fly away at the slightest noise. They are observed to catch insects mid-flight. They fly up to a height of 200 m and they are seen to fly in groups, as well as alone.

The hawfinch is a partial migrant, with northern flocks migrating towards the South during the winter, as shown by ringing techniques. These same studies showed that those hawfinches inhabiting habitats with a temperate climate would often have sedentary behaviour. A few migrants from northern Europe reach Britain in autumn and some are seen on the Northern Isles in spring. Given the high numbers and huge breeding area, the hawfinch is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern

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