Hokkaido is home to over 300 species of wild birds - around half of the wild bird species in Japan. It is a common place for birds to migrate from Siberia in winter, or to stop over on their way to the Japanese mainland. For a number of these birds, Hokkaido is the only place in the world where they can be found.

Many large seabirds spend the winter in Hokkaido, such as the Steller's sea eagle, white-tailed eagle and whooper swan. The eagles come from the Kamchatka peninsula, the north of the island of Sakhalin and downstream of the Amur river in Russia, and gather in eastern Hokkaido and the Shiretoko and Nemuro peninsulas in winter. Eastern Hokkaido is also home to Japan's largest red-crowned crane sanctuary and is the only place in Japan where the rare tufted puffin can be seen. You can take a cruise along the Shiretoko and Nemuro peninsulas and admire the Steller's sea eagles and white-tailed eagles resting on the drift ice in the sea.

Another birdwatcher's paradise is Teuri Island off the west coast of Hokkaido, which is home to around one million seabirds of 8 species. May to July is the breeding season of the common murre, a seabird that is now endangered in Japan, and the spectacled guillemot, which can only be found in a few places in the world.