Okinawa Rail Ecology Center Kuina-no-Mori was added to Your Favorites!
Yambaru NP, Okinawa
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Yanbaru rails crack large snails on exposed stones: a 2017 study in Kunigami filmed 4 birds gripping shells and hammering them against rock. It was the first direct evidence of tool use in the rail family.
Ornithologists formally described the Yanbaru rail as a new species in 1981—a modern discovery, though local people already knew the bird. Its description was Japan’s first newly described bird species in 60 years.
Kuina-no-Mori is the only facility in Japan where visitors can observe a living Yanbaru rail in captivity. Its forest-like enclosure lets visitors see the elusive bird bathe, wander, and sometimes approach the glass.
Kuina-no-Mori was established as part of Kunigami’s rail-protection work, not just as a place to view the bird. Its approved care plan calls for tracking food intake and weight, monitoring stress, and studying behavior on video.
When the center opened in 2013, its first resident was a female rail hatched from an egg found in Chosu, another part of Kunigami Village. She had been raised at an Environment Ministry facility before moving to the exhibit.
Though it cannot fly, the Yanbaru rail roosts 2–4 m above the ground in trees at night. The forest-floor bird has an unexpectedly elevated bedtime, a detail that helps explain the habitat recreated at Kuina-no-Mori.
Before its scientific description in 1981, people in Kunigami already called the rail “agachaa”—a local word for someone who works busily or moves about in a hurry. It’s a lively name for such a quick-footed bird.
