In Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, the two types of Common Crossbills with different flight calls that lived temporarily in a pine forest from winter to spring in 2017/2018. One is Crossbills of the Shimokita population that inhabits all year round and reproduces there (we call them ‘Resident type'), and the other is visitor from the unknown place (‘Ping-Ping type'). The resident type has been observed and ringed since 2006, we are accumulating their morphological data. Compared six morphological traits between 16 Ping-Ping type birds and 88 Residents, culmen length and weight were biased. Linear discriminant analysis also showed contributions of the two traits to separate two types. Resident type crossbills had relatively shorter culmen and light weight, whereas Ping-Ping type had longer culmen and heavy weight. The difference of culmen would be reflect to the difference regular diet, i.e. cone of conifer species in breeding site. Heavy weight of Ping-Ping types might be cause fat accumulation and building muscle in pre-migration.

Three Jack Snipes Lymnocryptes minimus were found and banded on agricultural land in Chiba Prefecture, Japan between October and December 2017. One of these was identified as a first winter, and the others were adults according to their molt and plumage characteristics. These two adults were observed in the area until February 2018, and one of them returned to the same site in October 2018. These represent second to fourth banding records and first reliable wintering records of Jack Snipe in Japan.

We recorded the breeding behaviors of male Red-billed Starling Spodiopsar sericeus and female White-checked Starling S. cineraceus from May 1 to June 12, 2017 in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Both the male and the female brought food for their offspring to the nest site, and we did not observe another adult starling. At least two nestlings showed their faces from entrance of the nest. Therefore, our observations suggested the interspecific hybridization between Red-billed Starling and White-checked Starling with successful fledging. As far as we know, this is the second record of the interspecific hybridization of them after the first records in Kochi Prefecture (Sato et al. 2010).

A juvenile (first winter plumage) Red-headed Bunting Emberiza bruniceps was captured and banded at an abandoned paddy field in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture on October 12, 2015. The bird had a uniformly yellow underside extending from the throat to the undertail-coverts, a yellowish rump, and olive-greenish grey-brown uppertail-coverts. Based on these plumage characteristics and molt stage, the bird was identified as a male juvenile Red-headed Bunting. In 2016, it was revealed that a male Red-headed Bunting with summer plumage photographed on Teuri Island in Hokkaido on April 11, 2016 was this same banded individual. This is the first domestic migratory record and a first plumage and molt record from juvenile to adult plumage for Red-headed Buntings in Japan.

On September 2, 2015, a Pintail Snipe Gallinago stenura was caught and released in a bird-banding operation at Lake Tofutsu in Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan. This individual had 22 tail feathers. We checked the roots of tails and there were no missing tail feathers and no growing feathers. The length and shape of the outer tail feathers of this individual were consistent with the tail characteristics of the Pintail Snipe, and it was identified as a young bird of this species by comprehensively judging it on body measurement values for the species. In the past, one case of an individual with 22 tail feathers was found in Kagoshima prefecture, but the founding individual was reported in academic research. This paper is the second record of 22 tail feathers in Pintail Snipe and is considered to be the first academic report of this phenomenon.

A female Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis banded on Furugelma Island in the Primorsky Territory of Russia was recovered in Gotsu City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan in March 2013. The Eurasian subspecies P. c. sinensis is considered to be different from its Japanese counterpart, the P. c. hanedae. A comparison was made between external body size and bone measurements based on this single individual. Except for the pelvis length, the measured values of the Russian Great Cormorant overlap those of Japanese Great Cormorants with no appreciable difference. Therefore,it is quite difficult to distinguish, morphologically, between the migrated Russian Great Cormorant and the native Japanese Great Cormorant population.

A banding survey for shorebirds was conducted in the Lena Delta, Russian Federation, from June 28 to July 12, 2016. A total of 35 bird species were observed, of which 18 were determined as breeding in the area. Also, 32 shorebirds of six species were captured and banded. In this report, the characteristics of shorebird nests and the morphological measurements of banded birds are described.

A banding expedition for Brent Geese Branta bernicla was conducted in the northeast of the Lena Delta, Russian Federation in July 2016. A total of 63 Brent Goose nests were found on three islands, and 21 females were captured and fitted with yellow colored plastic bands. In this report, we describe characteristics of the Brent Goose colony, including clutch size, egg morphology, and body measurements of captured geese. In addition, we report that one female banded in this study was recovered in Humboldt Bay, California, USA in December 2016.