The Japanese bush warbler (''Horornis diphone''), known in Japanese as (), is an Asian

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird more often heard than seen. Its distinctive breeding

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

can be heard throughout much of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from the start of spring.

Description

The Japanese bush warbler is olive brown above and tending toward dusky colors below. It has pale eyebrows. It has a beak that curves up making it look like it is smiling. The bird is typically in length.

Distribution and habitat

The Japanese bush warbler is a common year-round resident throughout Japan (except

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

) and the northern Philippines. In summer the Japanese bush warbler can also be found in

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, Korea, and central China. In winter, the bush-warbler can also be found in southern China and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It was introduced to

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

between 1929–1941 and has since spread throughout the main

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. In summer, it ranges from low hills to high mountains, preferring

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

thickets and black pine trees. In winter it seeks cover at lower elevations.

Relationship to humans

The propensity of the Japanese bush warbler to sing has led to the birds being kept as cage birds. Robert Young records that to encourage singing the cages of kept birds were covered with a wooden box with a small paper window that allowed only subdued light in.Robert Young. ''Yedo and Peking''. London: John Murray, 1863. viii. 120. Along with the return of the barn swallow the bush warbler's call is viewed by Japanese as a herald of springtime. It is one of the favorite motifs of

Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...

, featured in many poems including those in or . In

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

and , is one of the which signify the early spring. In poetry the bird is associated with the

ume ''Prunus mume'', the Chinese plum or Japanese apricot, is a tree species in the family Rosaceae. Along with bamboo, the plant is intimately associated with art, literature, and everyday life in China, from where it was then introduced to Kor ...

blossom, and appears with ume on playing cards. There is also a popular Japanese sweet named (Uguisu Balls) which consists of brown and white balls meant to resemble ume flower buds. However, the distinctive song is not usually heard until later in spring, well after the ume blossoms have faded. In haiku, the bird with this song is known as , and the song is called . The beauty of its song led to the English name ''Japanese Nightingale'', although the Japanese bush warbler does not sing at night as the European

nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird which is best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, ...

does.Catarina Blomberg. ''The West's Encounter with Japanese Civilization: 1800-1940''. Tokyo: Japan Library (Curzon Press), 2000. 52. This name is no longer commonly used. An ( = woman) is a female announcer at Japanese baseball games, or a woman employed to advertise products and sales with a microphone outside retail stores. These women are employed because of their beautiful 'warbling' voices. They are also employed to make public announcements for politicians in the lead-up to elections. In Japanese architecture there is a type of floor known as , which is generally translated into English as "nightingale floor". These floors have squeaking floorboards that resemble the Japanese bush warbler's low chirping, and are meant to be so designed to warn sleepers of the approach of

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

Examples Example may refer to: * ''exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, a ...

can be seen at Eikan-dō temple, Nijō Castle and Chion-in temple in Kyoto. The nightingale's droppings contain an enzyme that has been used for a long time as a

skin whitening Skin whitening, also known as skin lightening and skin bleaching, is the practice of using chemical substances in an attempt to lighten the skin or provide an even skin color by reducing the melanin concentration in the skin. Several chemicals h ...

agent and to remove fine wrinkles. It is sometimes sold as " powder". The droppings are also used to remove stains from

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

Songs

* Pi pi pi... kekyo kekyo Hooo- hoke'kyo Hoohokekyo. Young Japanese bush warblers do not initially perform the "hoohokekyo" song skillfully, but gradually learn to sing by imitating others in the vicinity. * Hooo- hokekyo, hooo- hokekyo. The songs of two Japanese bush warblers are recorded here on a single file.

References

Hamao, S. and M. Hayama, 2015. Breeding ecology of the Japanese Bush Warbler in the Ogasawara Islands. Ornithological Science, 14: 111–115. Hamao S (1997) Ippu-tasai no tori: Uguisu (A polygynous bird: the Japanese Bush Warbler). Bun-ichi Sogo Shuppan, Tokyo (in Japanese).

External links

Japanese bush-warbler
Mike Danzenbaker's bird photo website. {{Authority control Horornis Birds of Japan Birds described in 1830 Taxa named by Heinrich von Kittlitz