Hokkaido wildlife tours and Japan photography workshops are a birding and nature lover’s paradise. Sometimes, the smaller wildlife somehow gets missed, not completely surprising since over 98% of visiting wildlife photographers to Hokkaido have in mind to photograph the Steller's sea eagles, red-crowned cranes, and the smaller wildlife species get missed, which are more difficult to spot. When I have serious birders on my annual Hokkaido Photography Wildlife Expedition, I include some of the more challenging photo ops to elevate the Japan nature wildlife photography workshop tour and lend a measure of refinement to the workshop. The Shima Enaga (Parus caudatus) is one of those astonishing, one-of-a-kind additions. The Steller’s Sea Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Glaucous Gull, Blakiston’s Fish Owl, Whooper Swan, and Hokkaido’s snow ballerinas, the Red-crowned crane are all breathtaking avian wildlife, but when I have visiting birding photographers that don’t mind quietly waiting for bird photo ops, we wait and seek out the Shima Enaga and other wildlife. The Shima Enaga is a subspecies of the long-tailed bushtit, sometimes referred to as the silver-throated tit or silver-throated dasher. The species has been described as tiny at 12-16 cm (4.7-6.3inch) in length, including their tail at 7-9 cm (2.8-3.5inch). Males and females have an identical appearance.

Outside the breeding season, they form compact flocks of 5 to about 25 birds, composed of family parties from the previous breeding season, together with any extra adults that helped to raise a brood. These flocks will occupy and defend territories against neighboring flocks. The driving force behind the flocking behavior is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold; huddling increases survival through cold nights. The Shima Enaga occur mostly in Hokkaido, Japan. But they inhabit the entire Palearctic realm. Spring to autumn, females tend to wander into neighboring territories, while males remain within their winter territories. The helper birds are a very common feature of Shima Enaga flocks. It has been reported that approximately 50% of nests had one or more helpers. Helping relatives in the flock is not a completely altruistic endeavor. Helpers assist in improving the survivability of related offspring and gain skills for raising their offspring in future breeding seasons. Both male and female Shima Enaga can become helper birds.