2025 Volume 74 Issue 2 Pages 285-290
We tracked the fall migration of a juvenile Japanese Night Heron Gorsachius goisagi using a solar-powered Argos transmitter. The heron was captured and released in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. It migrated through Tanegashima and Nakanoshima (islands), 160 km northwest of Amami Oshima and 500 km west of the Luzon Islands (Philippines), and finally reached 50 km offshore of Colibra Island, near Luzon. The direction of the bird's route changed greatly towards the east over the South China Sea as a consequence of strong, typhoon-related winds. This report describes the first case of tracking the migration of Japanese Night Heron and also provides an example of a bird changing its migratory route in response to a typhoon.
