The number of avian species in urban areas throughout the world, particularly in Europe and the USA is low; however, their total density is higher than that observed in surrounding habitats. Nevertheless, it has not been confirmed whether this is true in Japan. Japanese cities have fewer green areas than European and American cities, and Japanese suburbs are likely to face forests on mountain slopes, whereas cities in most other countries face open grasslands, rural areas, or flatlands. These differences could influence the structure of avian diversity from city to native habitat. We compared the number of species and individuals of all species among city centers, suburbs, and forested areas in Japan. Similar to other countries, the structure of avian communities in Japanese cities was dominated by a handful of species, and total abundance was highest among the other environments. This suggests that the underlying mechanism determining the structure of the avian community is the same between Japan and other previously studied countries. However, species richness was not the highest in the intermediate areas, which is typical in Europe and the USA. This is because suburbs face forested areas and moderately urbanized areas are scarce in the study area. The lack of intermediate area is moderately typical in Japan. This difference is important not only for managing avian diversity but also total diversity from the city to native habitats in Japan.

The urban biodiversity is a modern concern warranting particular attention. As bioindicators, birds often contribute to the assessment of urban biodiversity; therefore, understanding habitat selection by urban dwelling birds may assist in the maintenance and management of urban biodiversity. However, habitat use by small birds in urban areas on a small scale has been little studied, so far. Here, we aim to reveal where and how the Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus utilizes a residential area during the winter in Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. The relationships among sparrow flock size, flock location, nesting site and seasonal changes are the primary focus of our study. Flocks were observed from October 2012 to April 2013. Nests were surveyed during the 2012 and 2013 breeding seasons. Our results revealed that the total number of sparrows and average of flock sizes changed seasonally. In midwinter , the total number of sparrows was at its lowest, yet the average flock size was greatest. Such changes may have been caused both by severe weather conditions (snow and low-temperatures during midwinter) as well as by preparation for breeding in early and late winter. Sparrows were not dispersed everywhere, instead they gathered in flocks at particular sites. The average distances between flocks and the nearest nest site were less than 40 m; in fact some old nest sites were used as roost sites. High ranked kernel density areas were located in unpaved areas and/or close to nests, especially in midwinter. Moreover, new nest sites were commonly constructed within 30 m of old nesting sites. Eurasian Tree Sparrows, it seems, display a level of nest fidelity. Based on such nest-site fidelity it might be possible to control future nesting sites of Eurasian Tree Sparrow through the provision of nest boxes.

We analyzed how waterbird habitats are covered by wildlife refuges in Japan. Of 84 waterfowl sites, 35.7% were specially protected, a further 22.6% were protected, and 41.7% were unprotected. Of 152 shorebird sites, 10.0% were specially protected, a further 24.7% were protected, and 66.7% were unprotected. The majority of sites with either large population sizes or more than five species that exceeded Ramsar Criteria were specially or normally protected for waterfowl, but not so for shorebirds. We ranked the contribution of each site to endangered waterfowl, shorebirds and Shelduck Tadorna tadorna. The results revealed that only a few sites hosted relatively many endangered species, while the rest of the sites did not play an important role as habitats for endangered species. Considering our results and the fact that both waterfowl and shorebird move in flocks, in order to protect endangered waterbirds, it is necessary to increase the size of specially protected areas of wildlife refuges. Six high ranking sites (Daijugarami, Sone Tideland, Awase Tideland, Usa coast, the southern-part of Osaka Kita Port, and Shirakawa River), contributing to supporting a number of endangered species, need to be given the highest conservation priority.

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The Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus is a migrator y member of the family Acrocephalidae (Clements et al. 2016; Gill & Donsker 2016). This species has a wide distribution and is a monotypic taxon; it breeds from Western Europe to central Russia (west of the Yenisei River) and central Asia including Kazakhstan, and winters in sub-Saharan Africa (Kennerley & Pearson 2010). Its status is considered by IUCN to be of ＂least concern＂ (BirdLife International 2004). East Asia, including Japan, lies far to the east of its normal distribution and its migration route. However, on rare occasions, juvenile songbirds of many species are known to migrate well beyond their normal ranges in their first Autumn (e.g. Furuichi et al. 2010, Horimoto & Watabe 2014.We captured a single Sedge Warbler during a ringing survey in the Autumn migration season of 2016. This represents the first time that this species has been caught and the second time the species has been recorded in Japan -the first individual was photographed on the island of Tsushima, in west-