BirdLife EBA Factsheet

General characteristics This Secondary Area is defined by the breeding range of Japanese Night-heron Gorsachius goisagi, a very poorly known, shy and retiring nocturnal species, which has declined in the last 30 years such that it appears to have become uncommon everywhere and is consequently classified as Vulnerable. Its breeding range is considered to include the Izu Islands (EBA 146), where it may be extinct, and adjacent parts of central Honshu (see map, p. 454). It has also been recorded from many of the other Japanese islands (including the Nansei Shoto, EBA 148), but with no evidence of breeding (Brazil 1991), and therefore additional (assumed wintering) areas are not covered by this or other Secondary Areas. The main threat in central Honshu is the loss of the species' preferred habitat'subtropical evergreen forest with watercourses and damp areas.

Secondary area A secondary area is an area which supports one or more restricted-range bird species, but does not qualify as an Endemic Bird Area because fewer than two species are entirely confined to it.

Citation BirdLife International 2003 BirdLife's online World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation. Version 2.0. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. Available: http://www.birdlife.org (accessed 9/2/2010)

Note Information presented in this factsheet reflects that published in ‘Endemic Bird Areas of the World’ (BirdLife International, 1998). As such, there may be discrepancies between this information and that presented in BirdLife’s (more recently updated) species and IBA factsheets. We plan to revise the EBA analysis in the near future to take account of these and other changes.