The East Asian–Australian Flyway spans from north Asia to Australia and is the world's richest birds' flyway because it involves > 40% of global migratory bird species. However, information is lacking on individual migratory routes and non‐breeding grounds for small land birds using this flyway. Here, we present the first migration tracks of the songbird Stejneger's stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri from this part of the world using light‐level geolocators. This species depends on grasslands during the entire annual cycle and was captured and equipped with tracking devices in Hokkaido, northern Japan. All individuals traveled through southern Primorye or eastern Heilongjiang (Russia/China) before flying southward via central China toward their major non‐breeding grounds in southeast Asia (China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam). Individual stonechats spent 42–70 d en route during their autumn migration. Both the major non‐breeding grounds and the stopover sites are likely to pose challenges to the persistence of this species, because these habitats are currently degraded and will likely be lost in the near future due to intensified agriculture and the establishment of permanent croplands. Moreover, the areas used by Stejneger's stonechat during migration largely overlapped with illegal trapping areas in northeastern China.

Fallen Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) feathers from bird habitats were used to extract DNA and produced a clear PCR band after the second PCR with grousespecific primers. Comparison with chicken and quail revealed that the mitochondrial control regions of the Rock Ptarmigan and Hazel Grouse (Bonasa bonasia) can be divided into three domains:a more conserved segment of the central domain with the F, D, and C boxes and CSB-1, as well as more variable regions of the left and right domains. Only two haplotypes were found in the Japanese Rock Ptarmigan at the 441 bp of the left domain: haplotype LM1 in 21 samples from 4 localities in the Hida mountains and haplotype LM2 in 1 sample from the Akaishi mountains. The same region was analyzed using 36 individuals of Hazel Grouse from Hokkaido, which exhibited 21 substitutions defining 21 haplotypes, indicating that the Japanese Rock Ptarmigan area has very low genetic variability. Palynological study indicated Pinus pumila zone, where is main habitat of the Japans Rock Ptarmigan, would have been scaled down during the early hypsithermal interval. Such a natural environmental change might cause a bottleneck event to the Rock Ptarmigan population, resulting very low genetic variability.

A total of 62 mitochondrial haplotypes were detected from 174 samples of hazel grouse Bonasa bonasia from Hokkaido, Primorskii, Sakhalin, Magadan, Siberia and Bohemia using 428 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region. Haplotype diversity for four populations in Hokkaido was more than 0.8, suggesting that a reasonable population size had been maintained throughout their history. Haplotypes from Hokkaido and haplotypes from Primorskii were clearly separated from other Eurasian continent haplotypes, not only in the phylogenetic tree but also in the network tree. Haplotypes from Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Magadan radiated from the hypothetical root composed of a double cubic network of parallel substitutions. Most of the haplotypes were separated by three substitutions from the root, or within a maximum of five substitutions. Pairwise sequence differences for most Eurasian haplotypes had a bimodal curve consisting of the first peak at 0–1 substitution differences and the second peak at 3–4 substitution differences, whereas those for Hokkaido haplotypes had only a peak at around 4–6 substitution differences. These observations most likely indicate that the populations analysed were differentiated about 40,000 years ago, and have expanded to the present distribution during the climatic optimum over the last 10,000 years.

Nesting Site of Stonechats in a Bog after a Spring Fire Yuzo FUJIMAKI and Yuri B. SHIBNEV The Stonechat Saxicola torquata nests in ground vegetation (CRAMP 1988). Ninety two nests found in agricultural lands of Obihiro and its neighboring areas, eastern Hokkaido, were built in grasses or herbs. In agricultural lands only dead grasses are available for nest covers in late April and early May when Stonechats begin to build the nest for the first breeding. Therefor, they nest in the recess on a slope of ditches covered wilt dead grasses or at base of the clump of dead grasses in pastures. As GREIG-SMITH (1984) indicated, characteristics of nest cover affect breeding success and the presence of vegetation covering the nest is indispensable for the nest building of Stonechats. If there is no ground vegetation available for nest covers, which type of nesting site is selected by Stonechats? We observed their nesting sites and nest construction in the condition lacking available ground vegetation after a spring fire in the Bikin-Alchan Mar (46043'N, 134029'E), northern Primorski krai, USSR, in June 1990. The Bikin-Alchan Mar is situated between the Bikin River and the Alchan Rriver, and occupies an area of 225,000 ha. Most of the area is a mosaic of bogs covered with sedge and graminoid grass (mainly Calamagostis langsdorffii) tussocks, shrub-grasslands covered with tall grasses and herbs, isolated woods dominated by oaks Quercus mongolica, and ponds. Isolated woods and shrub-grasslands occur on dry parts elevated 1 to 2 m from the bog level. In early May 1990, before the start of our observation, the study area was burnt in a wild fire. After the fire dead grasses and herbs were completely eliminated from the ground surface, and stems of shrubs died in the study area. All 6 nests found in early June were in the upper part of well developed tussocks of sedge or graminoid grasses in the bog area. The entrancee of the nest was concealed well with grown vegetation. In 5 nests young fledged successfully between 10 and 15 June. Since the breeding cycle of Stonechats from nest-building to fledging is about 37 days (CRAMP 1988), it is estimated that they started nest-building in early May, just after the fire. Another nest was destroyed probably by a predator during the nestling period. This nest did not differ form the others in nesting site type. After young left the nest, we cut tussocks by a saw to get profiles of the vertical section. All 5 nests examined were built near the entrace of old tunnels of voles Microtus fortis (Fig. 1). Nest cavities were 8 to 10.5 (9.3 in average) cm high, 9 to 10 (9.4 in average) cm wide and 8.5 to 11 (9.4 in average) cm deep, and were situated at a little inside of the tunnel entrance. The bottom of nest cavities was a hollow of 3 to 4 (3.4 in average) cm deep. The height and width of entrance were 6 to 7 (6.2 in average) cm and 5 to 6 (5.8 in average) cm respectively, being sinificantly smaller than those of the nest cavities (MANN-WHITNEY'S U-test, P<0.01). Larvae of bird-parasitic blowfly...

Characteristics of breeding sites, nest trees and holes of two woodpecker species, Dendrocopos major and D. minor, were investigated in woods and parks in the urban and rural areas of Obihiro, eastern Hokkaido from April to September 1993. In D. major the numbers of nest and birds counted per 30 minutes census increased with area size, but those of D. minor did not vary. Fledging date ranged from June 23 to July 25 with an average of July 2 for D. major and from July 3 to 20 with an average of July 11 for D. minor. Neither D. major nor D. minor showed any preference in vegetation types of nesting site. Of 42 D. major nests including those found out of study areas, 22 were in woods and 20 out of woods. On the other hand, of 9 D. minor nests, 8 were found in woods and only one nest out of woods. Nest tree height, nest height, DBH (diameter at breast height) and DNH (diameter at nest height) were 13.6m, 3.7m, 35.7cm and 28.2cm respectively for D. major, and 8.0m, 3.0m, 11.0cm and 26.6cm respectively for D. minor. D. major used both live and dead trees for nesting, while D. minor used only dead trees with several holes. The minimum DNH was 19 cm for D. major and 17cm for D. minor respectively. Values indicating nest sizes and volumes of D. major were larger than those of D. minor. Conditions required for nesting of two Dendrocopos species are 1)minimum area of 1.5 ha where they nested, 2) live and dead trees of more than 21 cm in DBH for D. major and 3) dead trees of more than 18cm in DBH for D. minor.