One of Japan’s very local birdwatching events is the Nemuro Birdland Festival, which takes place at Nemuro City in the Northeastern part of Hokkaido, Japan. There is not much information about this birding event, but I will share what I know from my research.
Nemuro is a small city in the Notsuke Peninsula well-known for birds, namely seabirds, shorebirds and eagles. Local Japanese birders flock here to do their birdwatching or photography.
Nemuro Birdland Festival
This bird festival in Hokkaido seems to need more publicity, and with some research, I managed to find a little more information, which I will share here for anyone planning to visit Japan. This amazing place is also a “wild bird paradise”, where you can see about 370 of the 630 wild bird species that can be observed in Japan. This year, the theme bird is Blakiston’s Fish Owl.
The bird festival is held annually to conserve this valuable natural resource and provide a place for bird watchers to interact and observe wild birds. During the bird festival in Hokkaido, the program includes birdwatching tours, nature observation on the snow, lectures on the conservation of wild birds, and exhibitions on wild birds.
Various bird-related handicrafts and painting workshops are found in the festival booth areas during the tail end of winter. Therefore, there will be booths both outdoors and indoors. The indoor section will feature more birding equipment like cameras and optic brands.
Exhibitors at Nemuro Birdland Festival
Every year, many exhibitors will participate in the bird festival here in Hokkaido and here is a list of participants based on the last event in Nemuro.
- Wild Bird Society of Japan, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation
- Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
- Shiretoko Utoro Sea Area Environmental Conservation Council
- Shiretoko Seabird Research Group
- Birds of Prey Medical Research Institute
- Notsuke Peninsula Nature Center
- NPO Kiritappu Wetland National Trust
- Shiretoko Nemuro North Pacific Scenic Byway
Bird Art & Craft and Miscellaneous
- Takashi Taniguchi Bird Painting Studio (wild bird goods and miscellaneous goods)
- Asobi textile (miscellaneous goods)
- Seafood Workshop Kirimusume (processed marine products)
- Furousou (wool art/cloisonné)
- Minshuku Takano (Nemuro Wild Bird Sheet)
- Nemuro City Tourism Association (Seabird sheet, Nemuro goods)
Birding Equipment
- Kowa Optics Co Ltd. (binoculars/telescope display)
- Hakuba Photo Industry Co., Ltd. (Swarovski Belbon exhibition and sales)
- Carl Zeiss Co., Ltd. (Product pamphlet display)
Nemuro Wild Bird Illustration Contest 2024
This contest is open to the locals, and illustrations based on wild birds seen in the Nemuro/Kushiro area will be judged. Again, this is all in Japanese, so if you are a foreign visitor, it would be nice to pop by and have a look.
Nemuro Birdland Festival 2024 Omakase Guided Tour
It seems that there is a very popular “Omakase Guided Tour,” which is sponsored by Nemuro Kotsu Travel Service, and this is always sold out; therefore, if anyone is interested, you need to see the program details and application form from the main website. But, the tour will be in full Japanese, so if you don’t understand, it is recommended not to take this.
The same company will also offer several other birdwatching tours, and all of them are in Japanese. If you are curious, visit the Nemuro Kotsu Travel Service booth when you are there.
Lake Furen Eagle Observation Group
This is a unique bird observation activity where a ranger from the Wild Bird Society of Japan will bring visitors to see the Steller’s sea eagle and white-tailed eagle that winter at Lake Furen. For more information, you need to obtain it at the event.
Birds of Nemuro
For the record, there are quite a number of birds that can be seen in and around Nemuro if you are planning to visit this place, and the sought-after birds include;
- Steller’s sea eagle
- White-tailed eagle,
- Snow bunting
- Redfinch
- Blakiston’s Fish Owl
- Mountain jay
- Striped long-tailed tit
- Raven
- Sea pigeon
- Grey murrelet
- Murrelet
- White-winged buzzard
- Japanese sandpiper
- White-breasted crow
- Various Ducks
Where is the Nemuro Birdland Festival?
This location is in the Northeastern part of Sapporo, on the Notsuke Peninsula. It will take about six hours from Hokkaido City to drive here, and the main airport is the New Chitose Airport.
If you plan to take a train from Sapporo, the fastest train will take almost 7 hours to get here; therefore, I would suggest you plan your accommodations in Nemuro for the bird festival. Otherwise, travelling up and down will be quite tiresome.
Nemuro Birdland Festival 2024
- Date: 26-29 January & 3-4 February
- Main Venue: Bell Classic Nemuro (ベルクラシック根室) – Google Map Link
- Sub-Venue: Roadside Station ‘Swan 44 Nemuro‘ (道の駅 スワン４４ねむろ) Google Map Link
- Website: Nemuro Birdland Festival (Japanese)
Additional Venue Information
- Main venue: Bell Classic Nemuro
- Secondary venue: Shunkunitai Nature Center
- Third venue: Roadside station “Swan 44 Nemuro”
- Fourth venue: Nemuro Citizen’s Forest
This event is organised by the Nemuro City Government and Nemuro Tourism Association. It is also co-sponsored by the Wild Bird Society of Japan Nemuro Branch, Nemuro Tocologist Association, Nemuro Wise Youth Association, Nemuro Kotsu Co., Ltd and Supervised by the Nemuro Birdland Festival Executive Committee.
*All photos featured here are taken from the official Nemuro Bird Land Festival Facebook Page and used only for promotional purposes in this article.
For more information on events, festivals, fairs and expos on birdwatching, please see my section on Worldwide Birdwatching Events. If you would like to work with me, please get in touch with me, and we can discuss further on this.
Conclusion
The Nemuro Birdland Festival in Hokkaido, Japan, is quite a huge event and spans over six days around Nemuro. Those planning to visit here should make arrangements early, especially for accommodation in Hokkaido or Nemuro.
For Birdwatching Asia, we would love to visit this place to experience and write about this birding event in Japan, but for now, it is quite late. Who knows, maybe we will attend the next Birdland festival in 2025. For those going, have a great time there.
