Japanese Birds

Get information of birds in Japan with photos, descriptions, and sounds.

This app provides information on 250 species of birds in Japan, complete with photographs, descriptions, and sounds. There are 364 sounds—including songs, calls, and drumming. Beautiful birdsong, passionate canzone, the melancholy melody of a love song, intense drumming, birdcall as daily communication—enjoy the diverse world of wild birds.

You can look up birds anytime, anywhere with this app installed on your Android device. No more having to lug heavy guidebooks around.

When you encounter a bird, you can listen to its pleasing birdsong, then you can let this app work for you. You can browse by name alphabetically or by family, or search by common name, scientific name, or Japanese name.

Japanese name could be convenience when you talk to Japanese bird watcher. e.g. “Red-crowned Crane” is “Tan-cho” in Japanese name. It has also glossary and terminology in Japanese and English.

If you do not remember or cannot even guess at part of the bird's name, you can use the search function to search by color, size, habitat, or distribution. You can browse through the quickly returned search results, which are sorted by size. Color or habitat search conditions can be set as a filter as you wish.

To play a sound, simply tap on the sound play button or on the phonetic spelling text. Photographs, life descriptions, and phonetic spelling for voices help you to understand birds effortlessly.

In addition, you can let the link function work for you so you do not miss similar sounds.

You can make your own lists of favorite birds, by season, by site, or in any manner you like. Included are sample lists for Hokkaido(endemic to Hokkaido) and Okinawa(endemic to Okinawa).

The player function plays sounds from your own list or by family.

You can use it to simply appreciate your favorite sounds, or to train your ear using blind mode.

Text size for menus and descriptions can be set to small or large as you wish. This app is bilingual in Japanese and English, allowing you to enjoy international communication through wild birds.

The photographs are by Takuya Kanouchi, and the sound recordings and text are by Hideo Ueda. Between them, they have taken a massive number of photographs and recorded many, many sounds over several decades. Now this wealth of information is in your hands, and with this treasured library you can go out into the field of wild birds.

Some of the contents of this app were originally published as a book (see left picture). This app includes a glossary and terminology for parts of a bird taken from the book.

When you use this app to play sounds outdoors, please use headphones or turn the volume down if using a speaker. Your consideration in not disturbing other birdwatchers is appreciated.