Places and times seen in Munakata city

It is a summer bird in Munakata, which can be observed in the dark forests of needle wide mixed forests throughout the city excluding the islands, from late April to October, but the number of flying is small and there are not so many opportunities to be observed.

Characteristic

Total length of about 18 cm (However, for males whose tail feathers are long, the males will be about 45 cm.)
Male is black from the head to the chest, the upper side of the back is purple brown, shiny. Crown feathers from head to head are developed. The wings and tail are dark brown. The pair of tails is very long. The underside below the abdomen is white. The beak and eyelid ring are cobalt blue. The inside of the mouth is yellowish green, and the foot becomes black gray.
The female is dark brown on the upper side from the back, the width of the eyelid ring is narrower than the male, and the cobalt blue is thin. The chest from the head is black gray and thinner than the tail. The tail is the same length and short as the pair of the center.

Habit

It is a forest with mountainous cypresses and trees of cedar tree from the flat land, and fly to places where there are water fields such as rivers, lakes and ponds nearby.
Living with a pair of turfs, flying about in the forest and capturing gases attached to the branches and the like in flight.
The squeal is "gee", and the breeding season is "Guyfi Hui Hui Hui". I heard that this is "Monthly Star Hoa Hoi Hoi", which became the basis of naming, becoming "Sanko bird".

distribution

It is a summer bird south of Honshu. It becomes a stray bird in Hokkaido.
Breeding in the Japanese archipelago, southern islands, Taiwan, Philippines, south of Honshu, overwintering on Indochina, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra Island.

Other

As the English name suggests, the Japanese archipelago is the main breeding ground.