Sado Wildlife in Focus | Ballerina of the Rice Fields

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I was out photographing the crested ibis, designated as a Special Natural Monument by the Japanese government, when a different bird caught my eye.

Last time, I wrote about the Eurasian curlew, a rare migratory visitor to these parts. But this time, it was the graceful black-winged stilt, sometimes called the "ballerina of the paddies" in Japanese.

Every year around the Golden Week holidays in May, when rice paddies are flooded in preparation for planting, black-winged stilts begin to appear. Whenever I spot one, it feels like rice-planting season is just around the corner.

In the fully flooded paddies, those long pink legs cast reflections on the water's surface. After watching it for a while, it starts to resemble a flamingo.

The black-winged stilt measures about 40 cm (around 15.7 in) in length from beak tip to tail, not counting those remarkable legs. The legs themselves are around 25 cm, giving it the second-highest leg-to-body ratio of any bird in the world, after the flamingo. Its Japanese name reflects this, roughly translating to "long-legged sandpiper."

The "Ballerina of the Rice Fields"

Its other defining feature is the striking contrast of a white body and jet-black wings, which is where its English name comes from. "Stilt" also describes those long legs. Look closely at the black markings running from the head to the back, and you'll notice that each bird has a slightly different pattern, not unlike the coat of a calico cat.

When several stilts line up and forage together, their movements take on a graceful, almost choreographed quality, which is why they've earned the "ballerina of the rice fields" moniker. It's my favorite way of describing them.

With its long legs, the black-winged stilt can feed in relatively deep water, though on Sado it is usually seen wading through the shallower rice paddies.

Conservation Efforts on Sado

On Sado, a certification system called "Villages Coexisting with the Crested Ibis" was launched in 2007 to create better feeding grounds for the ibis. Farmers have since worked to reduce pesticide use and adopt more environmentally friendly practices, including leaving paddy banks free of herbicides.

As a result, even shallow fields now support enough small aquatic organisms to attract feeding birds. Efforts that began for the ibis have ended up benefiting other migratory birds as well.

By the end of May, when the roughly month-long rice-planting season wraps up, the paddy banks have grown thick without herbicides, and grass cutting begins. By then, the black-winged stilts have already left the island. Wiping the sweat from my brow as I work through the mowing, I find myself looking forward to seeing them again next year.

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This is the 34th in the series Sado Wildlife in Focus by photojournalist Fumie Oyama.

Fumie Oyama is a two-time winner of the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association Award as a photographer for The Sankei Shimbun. After covering the reintroduction of the crested ibis to the wild for 11 years, Oyama left the company in 2020 to move to Sado Island. There, he continues to photograph the ibis and other wildlife while engaging in farming. He currently promotes the charms of Sado Island as a photojournalist. Follow Fumie Oyama on Instagram.

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