If they are unable to give birth, these sweet birds will take care of the other birds' nests.
Could these be the sweetest little birds on the planet? The Japanese certainly think so, calling these beloved long-tailed sparrows "snow fairies". Known as Shima-enaga, like round cotton balls, live on Japan's second largest island, Hokkaido.
Photographer Yuzuru Kitagawa captured their delicate beauty perfectly as they hovered around their snowy home. With their white faces, bright round eyes and small beaks, they look like flying snowballs.
According to wildlife experts, Saiyu Travel, the Hokkaido long-tailed finches—Aegithalos caudatus japonicus—can be seen year-round on the island, but only in winter they ruffle their feathers to keep warm, making them look like cute, round feathered balls.
One of the secrets to their magical cuteness is that while other breeds of long-tailed finches tend to have dark eyebrows, the Shima-enaga lose their eyebrows as adults, leaving them with a pure white face.
Usually weighing the equivalent of a few teaspoons of sugar, they are only 13 to 15 centimeters long — including the tail — and bounce around energetically, performing magic tricks in the air.
Gracefully sociable, the lovely sparrows walk, feed and perch in flocks of about 20. They breed in February or March every year. Helpfully, the adults who failed to give birth take on the responsibility of feeding and taking care of the other parent's chicks.
In early spring, when the weather turns a bit milder, trees with damaged branches begin to drip sap, which then solidifies into sugary clumps. A favorite of Shima-enaga, birds can be spotted licking frozen food, giving them an extra source of nutrition.
The fluffy cuteness of the long-tailed sparrow makes many photographers especially make a trip to Hokkaido, to take pictures of the "snow fairies". Talking, noisy, fluffy birds are sure to inspire interest. Not only do they appear in Japanese books and manga, but they also appear widely in crafts and souvenirs.
