Japan Ramsar wetland
Lake Biwa
97 bird species recorded; the most in January.
Lonely Planet Japan · CC BY-SA 4.0
This month here
85 species in January.68 species in February.31 species in March.31 species in April.27 species in May.2 species in June.19 species in July.0 species in August.20 species in September.14 species in October.53 species in November.42 species in December.
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.
VU
NT
VU
VU
NT
VU
NT
VU
No records for this month.
VU
VUNTVU
- Resident all year
- Summer visitor comes to breed
- Winter visitor comes for the winter
- Passage migrant in spring and autumn
In numbers
97 species, counted.
Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).
- 97Speciesrecorded more than once
- 44Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
- 3ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
- 1,058Recordsopen records within 6 km
- 84 mAltitudeabove the sea
- 9Raptors
- 6Waders
- 3Gulls & seabirds
- 25Ducks & geese
- 9Herons, ibises & grebes
- 2Storks & cranes
- 36Songbirds
- 7Other 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 97 species.
By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.
Raptors9 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Black KiteMilvus migrans
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Common KestrelFalco tinnunculus
- Eastern Marsh-harrierCircus spilonotus
- Steller's Sea-eagleHaliaeetus pelagicusVU
- Japanese BuzzardButeo japonicus
- Hen HarrierCircus cyaneus
- Eurasian SparrowhawkAccipiter nisus
- MerlinFalco columbarius
Waders6 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Northern LapwingVanellus vanellusNT
- Grey-headed LapwingVanellus cinereus
- DunlinCalidris alpinaNT
- Common SandpiperActitis hypoleucos
- Common SnipeGallinago gallinago
- Green SandpiperTringa ochropus
Gulls & seabirds3 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Black-headed GullChroicocephalus ridibundus
- Common GullLarus canus
- Black-tailed GullLarus crassirostris
Ducks & geese25 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Eurasian WigeonMareca penelope
- MallardAnas platyrhynchos
- Tufted DuckAythya fuligula
- Common PochardAythya ferinaVU
- Eurasian TealAnas crecca
- Anas poecilorhynchaAnas poecilorhyncha
- GadwallMareca strepera
- Chinese Spot-billed DuckAnas zonorhyncha
- Falcated DuckMareca falcata
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
- Northern ShovelerSpatula clypeata
- GoosanderMergus merganser
- Greater ScaupAythya marila
- Red-breasted MerganserMergus serrator
- SmewMergellus albellus
- Bewick's SwanCygnus columbianus
- Greater White-fronted GooseAnser albifrons
- Baikal TealSibirionetta formosa
- Scaly-sided MerganserMergus squamatus
- Taiga Bean GooseAnser fabalis
- American ScoterMelanitta americanaNT
- Ring-necked DuckAythya collaris
- Mandarin DuckAix galericulata
- Tundra Bean GooseAnser serrirostris
Herons, ibises & grebes9 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Grey HeronArdea cinerea
- Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo
- Great Crested GrebePodiceps cristatus
- Great White EgretArdea alba
- Little GrebeTachybaptus ruficollis
- Little EgretEgretta garzetta
- Eared GrebePodiceps nigricollis
- Eurasian SpoonbillPlatalea leucorodia
- Egretta intermediaEgretta intermedia
Storks & cranes2 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Hooded CraneGrus monachaVU
- Common CraneGrus grus
Songbirds36 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- Carrion CrowCorvus corone
- Eurasian Tree SparrowPasser montanus
- Large-billed CrowCorvus macrorhynchos
- Brown-eared BulbulHypsipetes amaurotis
- White WagtailMotacilla alba
- Japanese WagtailMotacilla grandis
- Meadow BuntingEmberiza cioides
- Bull-headed ShrikeLanius bucephalus
- Grey-capped GreenfinchChloris sinica
- White-cheeked StarlingSpodiopsar cineraceus
- Turdus eunomusTurdus eunomus
- Barn swallowHirundo rustica
- SkylarkAlauda arvensis
- Japanese Bush WarblerHorornis diphone
- Zosterops japonicusZosterops japonicus
- Cinereous TitParus cinereus
- RookCorvus frugilegus
- Blue Rock ThrushMonticola solitarius
- Daurian RedstartPhoenicurus auroreus
- Masked buntingEmberiza personata
- Poecile variusPoecile varius
- Grey WagtailMotacilla cinerea
- Rustic BuntingEmberiza rusticaNT
- BramblingFringilla montifringilla
- Daurian JackdawColoeus dauuricus
- Bohemian WaxwingBombycilla garrulus
- Olive-backed PipitAnthus hodgsoni
- Pale ThrushTurdus pallidus
- Common Reed BuntingEmberiza schoeniclus
- Red-flanked BluetailTarsiger cyanurus
- Zitting CisticolaCisticola juncidis
- Chinese Grey ShrikeLanius sphenocercus
- Japanese GrosbeakEophona personata
- HawfinchCoccothraustes coccothraustes
- Oriental Reed WarblerAcrocephalus orientalis
- Eastern Red-rumped SwallowCecropis daurica
Other birds7 species
JFMAMJJASOND
- CootFulica atra
- Oriental Turtle DoveStreptopelia orientalis
- Common KingfisherAlcedo atthis
- Rock DoveColumba livia
- Common MoorhenGallinula chloropus
- Japanese Pygmy WoodpeckerYungipicus kizuki
- Green PheasantPhasianus versicolor
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 January.
Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.
- Jan4°/-2°130 mm
- Feb5°/-1°104 mm
- Mar9°/1°127 mm
- Apr16°/6°136 mm
- May21°/12°148 mm
- Jun24°/16°178 mm
- Jul28°/21°246 mm
- Aug29°/22°158 mm
- Sep25°/18°202 mm
- Oct19°/11°167 mm
- Nov13°/6°115 mm
- Dec7°/1°153 mm
- Bar: species recorded that month.
- Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
- Rain: monthly total.
The place
Lake Biwa.
Freshwater lake in Japan
Lake Biwa is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Japan.
97 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 1,058 open records.
The most recorded are the Eurasian Wigeon, the Mallard and the Tufted Duck.
6 species come for the summer, 37 for the winter and 1 only pass through.
3 are threatened worldwide, including Common Pochard, Steller's Sea-eagle and Hooded Crane.
The most species are recorded in January.
Get there and watch
- ニュー白浜 オートキャンプ場campsite · 6.8 km · 3 within 10 km
- 琵琶湖コンファレンスセンターplace to stay · 5.9 km · 7 within 10 km
- Ōmihachimannearest town · 14 km in a straight line
- Nagoya Airport / JASDF Komaki Air Base (NKM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 77 km in a straight lineCar hire at NGO airport (Tokoname)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.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 3campsites within 10 kmニュー白浜 オートキャンプ場, 宝船温泉ファミリーキャンプ場, 新生キャンプ場
- 7places to stay within 10 km琵琶湖コンファレンスセンター, 長浜屋, 休暇村近江八幡 and 4 more
- bird hides within 6 km
- observation towers within 6 km
- marked trails within 4 km
- visitor centres within 6 km
- viewpoints within 5 km
- car parks within 3 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 Lake Biwa.
The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.
Peakyas7 mountains within 25 kmMount Kōjin284 m · 11 kmMount Doman1,057 m · 16 kmMount Akagami357 m · 18 kmMount Bunagatake1,214 m · 18 kmMount Hōrai1,174 m · 18 kmMount Minako972 m · 23 kmMount Mikami432 m · 23 km
Lakeyas2 lakes within 15 kmLake Biwa673 km² · 11 km↗Inner Lake2.2 km² · 11 km
Darkskyas1 dark-sky places within 30 kmDainik Astronomical ObservatoryBortle 5 · 21 km
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.
Lake Biwa
Japan
- 55Birdyas Score
- 97Species
- 44Migrants
- 3Threatened
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q200239) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Birds | 1,058 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Species | GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Riveryas |
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.
beaches
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.You are here
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit