A joint Japan-Russia bird-banding research project was conducted on the Kamchatka Peninsula from 1998 to 2000. A total of 5,278 birds of 46 species were banded and released, and 361 birds of 21 species were recaptured. The banded birds were classified into four types based on time of day when most captures occurred. These were Type I (early morning), type II (early morning and evening), type III (morning) and type IV (all day long). The dominant species banded were Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica, Willow Tit Parus montanus, Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis, Red-breasted Flycatcher Ficedula parva, Reed Bunting E. schoeniclus and Common Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus. Both Red-breasted Flycatcher and Common Rosefinch are very rare in Japan, suggesting that these two species migrate from Kamchatka to the Continent over the Sea of Okhotsk. There were 18 records of banded Reed Bunting moving between Japan and Kamchatka documented in this study. The sites of the recapture and release for this species in Japan range from Miyagi prefecture in the north to Miyazaki prefecture in the south. This data suggests that Kamchatka is an important breeding area for Reed Bunting that winter in Japan. The capture records obtained confirmed that long distance migratory birds, such as Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler Locustella ochotensis, Red-breasted Flycatcher and Common Rosefinch, migrated early; while short distant migrants such as Brambling Fringilla montifringilla, migrated late. The data also showed that juveniles of Red-breasted Flycatcher, Rustic Bunting and Reed Bunting, which don't molt in the breeding area, migrated earlier than the adults, which molt completely in the breeding area. The juveniles of Common Rosefinch and Arctic Warbler, in contrast were found to migrate later than the adults, which molt in their wintering area. The captures and measurements obtained showed that the timing of body fat increase corresponded with the peak of migration in adults, but was about 10 days later in juveniles. This may account probably for juveniles taking a longer time to complete the migration than adults.

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Taxonomy, morphological traits and migration patterns of subspecies of the Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis in Eastern Asia, including Japan, are still poorly known. International cooperative research is required to resolve these issues. In this research, field work surveys, including banding, were conducted at the Niigata Coast, Japan and in central Kamchatka, Russia. The focus was on morphological traits and migrating habits of a subspecies of P. borealis. Analysis of previous unpublished data indicated than in Niigata, a clear and regular northward migration occurs in early summer, from late May to middle June. Also, no clear differences in diagnostic morphological traits (wing length, tail length, primary wing formula, the difference between the length of the outermost primary and the maximum length of the primary coverts (P10 - PCmax), and the number of buff patches on the greater secondary coverts, etc.) were observed between birds obtained in Niigata and Kamchatka. This data thus supports the view that migrants in Niigata and migrants and/or summer visitors in Kamchatka belong to the same population comprising a subspecies (most probably P. b. examinandus; not P. b. xanthodryas or P. b. borealis).

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Molt pattern of Common Rosefinch and dichromatism of female type individuals were discussed by using the data of banded birds in Kamchatka by Japan-Russia cooperative banding study. In European nominate subspecies of Common Rosefinch, C. e. erythrinus, adults molt completely at winter ground. In Russian and Japanese subspecies, C. e. grebnitskii, however, some adults molt after migration like a nominate subspecies, but some others molt completely at breeding ground before migration. Also, two color types, olive type and red type, were recognized in color of the edge of flight and tail feathers in both adult and juvenile birds of female type plumage. It is probable that a red type individual is a juvenile male or poorly colored young male.

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Identification characteristics for juvenile plumages of the Sooty Flycatcher Muscicapa sibirica, Grey-spotted Flycatcher M. griseisticta and Brown Flycatcher M. dauurica were analyzed and discussed, based on the results of observations and a review of exiting literature. The study found that the most useful characteristics for distinguishing among these three species are color, shape and size of the spots on the head and back. Even birds of first-winter plumage can be identified if these characteristics are present.

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A total of 47 species were captured during the joint Japan-Russia bird banding research conducted on the Kamchatka Peninsula from 1998 to 2000. Data for Identifying subspecies, sex and age were collected for each species.

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Japan-Russia cooperative banding research was conducted in Kamchatka by the Japanese Bird Banding Association, during the post-breeding and autumn migration periods (mid-August to mid-September) for three years (1998 to 2000). A total of 5,744 birds of 47 species were captured, and weight and measurements were recorded for 3,840. It is important that this sort of data is shared among a large number of researchers participating in cooperative studies. Construction of a data base is one way to make the results widely available. This report provides an outline of the measurement data (mean ± S.D.) obtained in the cooperative banding research. The structure of the data base is also explained, along with a discussion of how the data base proved useful and how similar data bases might be improved in future research projects.

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