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Japan Japan Ramsar wetland

Hotokenuma

80 bird species recorded; the most in May.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec64at the peak
Species recorded in each month · tap a month

あおもりくま ( Aomorikuma ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

This month here

10 species in January.

The birds you are most likely to see in the month you choose, those that come for the season first. It opens on today's month.

Whooper Swan
Whooper SwanCygnus cygnusWinter visitorPascal Aleixandre · CC BY-SA 3.0
Mallard
MallardAnas platyrhynchosWinter visitorTetiana.iefimenko · CC BY 4.0
Eurasian Wigeon
Eurasian WigeonMareca penelopeWinter visitorПочта России · Public domain
Common PochardVU
Common PochardAythya ferinaWinter visitorCharles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 3.0
Northern Pintail
Northern PintailAnas acutaWinter visitorJ.M.Garg · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • Resident all year
  • Summer visitor comes to breed
  • Winter visitor comes for the winter
  • Passage migrant in spring and autumn

In numbers

80 species, counted.

50out of 100

Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).

  • 80Speciesrecorded more than once
  • 40Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
  • 2ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
  • 829Recordsopen records within 6 km
  • 4Raptors
  • 16Waders
  • 1Gulls & seabirds
  • 16Ducks & geese
  • 8Herons, ibises & grebes
  • 27Songbirds
  • 8Other birds

From open records (eBird and others, through GBIF, licensed for any use). More birdwatchers mean more records: a quiet place may have more birds than it shows.

The checklist

All 80 species.

By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.

Raptors4 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Japanese BuzzardButeo japonicus
  • Black KiteMilvus migrans
  • OspreyPandion haliaetus
  • Eastern Marsh-harrierCircus spilonotus
Waders16 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Red-necked StintCalidris ruficollisNT
  • Kentish PloverCharadrius alexandrinus
  • SanderlingCalidris alba
  • Charadrius mongolusCharadrius mongolus
  • Gray-tailed TattlerTringa brevipes
  • Eurasian WhimbrelNumenius phaeopus
  • Ruddy TurnstoneArenaria interpresNT
  • Pacific Golden PloverPluvialis fulva
  • Japanese SnipeGallinago hardwickiiNT
  • Grey PloverPluvialis squatarolaVU
  • Terek SandpiperXenus cinereus
  • Common SnipeGallinago gallinago
  • Red-necked PhalaropePhalaropus lobatus
  • Common GreenshankTringa nebularia
  • DunlinCalidris alpinaNT
  • Common SandpiperActitis hypoleucos
Gulls & seabirds1 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Black-tailed GullLarus crassirostris
Ducks & geese16 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Whooper SwanCygnus cygnus
  • Chinese Spot-billed DuckAnas zonorhyncha
  • Tufted DuckAythya fuligula
  • MallardAnas platyrhynchos
  • Greater ScaupAythya marila
  • Eurasian WigeonMareca penelope
  • Common PochardAythya ferinaVU
  • Eurasian TealAnas crecca
  • Northern PintailAnas acuta
  • GarganeySpatula querquedula
  • Falcated DuckMareca falcata
  • Mute SwanCygnus olor
  • Anas poecilorhynchaAnas poecilorhyncha
  • Greater White-fronted GooseAnser albifrons
  • Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
  • GadwallMareca strepera
Herons, ibises & grebes8 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Grey HeronArdea cinerea
  • Great Crested GrebePodiceps cristatus
  • Little GrebeTachybaptus ruficollis
  • Egretta intermediaEgretta intermedia
  • Great White EgretArdea alba
  • Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo
  • Eurasian BitternBotaurus stellaris
  • Little EgretEgretta garzetta
Songbirds27 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Marsh grassbirdLocustella pryeri
  • Ochre-rumped BuntingEmberiza yessoensisNT
  • Common Reed BuntingEmberiza schoeniclus
  • Grey-capped GreenfinchChloris sinica
  • Chestnut-eared BuntingEmberiza fucata
  • Black-browed Reed WarblerAcrocephalus bistrigiceps
  • Oriental Reed WarblerAcrocephalus orientalis
  • Carrion CrowCorvus corone
  • SkylarkAlauda arvensis
  • Masked buntingEmberiza personata
  • Large-billed CrowCorvus macrorhynchos
  • Japanese Bush WarblerHorornis diphone
  • Bull-headed ShrikeLanius bucephalus
  • Eurasian Tree SparrowPasser montanus
  • Meadow BuntingEmberiza cioides
  • Turdus eunomusTurdus eunomus
  • White WagtailMotacilla alba
  • Barn swallowHirundo rustica
  • Brown-eared BulbulHypsipetes amaurotis
  • Sand MartinRiparia riparia
  • Rustic BuntingEmberiza rusticaNT
  • Stejneger's StonechatSaxicola stejnegeri
  • Chestnut-cheeked StarlingAgropsar philippensis
  • White-cheeked StarlingSpodiopsar cineraceus
  • Cinereous TitParus cinereus
  • Yellow BuntingEmberiza sulphurata
  • Zitting CisticolaCisticola juncidis
Other birds8 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • CootFulica atra
  • Oriental Turtle DoveStreptopelia orientalis
  • Common CuckooCuculus canorus
  • Green PheasantPhasianus versicolor
  • Eastern Water RailRallus indicus
  • Common KingfisherAlcedo atthis
  • Common MoorhenGallinula chloropus
  • Lesser CuckooCuculus poliocephalus

Monthly presence relative to all bird records that month, so a busy month does not inflate every species.

When to go

The most species in May.

Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.

  1. Jan101°/-2°103 mm
  2. Feb101°/-2°78 mm
  3. Mar05°/0°83 mm
  4. Apr2110°/4°80 mm
  5. May6415°/9°84 mm
  6. Jun4819°/13°87 mm
  7. Jul3323°/18°139 mm
  8. Aug1325°/20°146 mm
  9. Sep3322°/18°136 mm
  10. Oct117°/12°120 mm
  11. Nov2010°/6°115 mm
  12. Dec04°/1°126 mm
  • Bar: species recorded that month.
  • Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Hotokenuma.

Wetland in Japan

Hotokenuma is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Japan.

80 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 829 open records.

The most recorded are the Red-necked Stint, the Marsh grassbird and the Whooper Swan.

30 species come for the summer, 9 for the winter and 1 only pass through.

2 are threatened worldwide, including Common Pochard and Grey Plover.

The most species are recorded in May.

仏沼 風景
あおもりくま ( Aomorikuma ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and watch

  • わかさぎ公園 浜台キャンプ場campsite · 7.3 km · 5 within 10 km
  • 玉勝温泉 別館place to stay · 14 km · 1 within 10 km
  • Toyotanearest town · 14 km in a straight line
  • Misawa Airport / Misawa Air Base (MSJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 13 km in a straight lineCar hire at AOJ airport (Aomori)Discover Cars · sponsored link

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The place and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the bird hides, towers and trails that OpenStreetMap shows.

Hotokenuma seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1car parks within 3 km
  • 5campsites within 10 kmわかさぎ公園 浜台キャンプ場, 小川原湖畔キャンプ場, 小川原湖公園キャンプ場 and 2 more
  • 1places to stay within 10 km玉勝温泉 別館
  • bird hides within 6 km
  • observation towers within 6 km
  • marked trails within 4 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km
  • viewpoints within 5 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Hotokenuma.

The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The place, as people saw it.

Other places nearby.

Hotokenuma

Japan

  • 50Birdyas Score
  • 80Species
  • 40Migrants
  • 2Threatened

Ōnuma

Japan · 144 km

  • 57Birdyas Score
  • 108Species
  • 51Migrants
  • 3Threatened

See the guide

Izunuma-Uchinuma

Japan · 235 km

  • 63Birdyas Score
  • 125Species
  • 66Migrants
  • 4Threatened

See the guide

Shizugawa Bay

Japan · 240 km

  • 53Birdyas Score
  • 85Species
  • 41Migrants
  • 3Threatened

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q3141155) · CC0
Birds829 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
See these recordsgbif.org
SpeciesGBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesIslandyas, Lakeyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.