Birds of Japan: the brown-eared bulbul

I am certainly no expert on birds. But thanks to a love of flowers, I have learned a little (very little) about certain birds in Japan. Mainly those birds that love cherry blossoms as much as I do! That is, the White-eye, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Japanese Tit, White-cheeked Starling and the Brown-eared Bulbul. 

Because I don't normally have the patience to wait around to get a photo of a bird in the cherry blossoms, I still have a very limited collection of bird photos. Because the birds flit rapidly between blossoms, they hard to capture in the frame. But today I managed to get some photos of a bulbul feeding on kawazu (early blooming) cherry blossoms. The brown-eared bulbul, called hiyodori in Japanese, is a medium sized bird - bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a dove. It has a long tail. There is some yellow on the fore part of its beak, but it's largely a brown / grey bird. 

The bulbul loves nectar, but it pushes into blossoms aggressively. Because of how rough they are with the cherry blossoms, some people refer to them as "stealing" the blossoms! In addition, because they are quite bold and territorial and chase mejiro and scare off sparrows, it adds to there somewhat negative image - as a bully and nectar thief! But they help pollinate the blossoms and spread seeds, so I see them as a friend. A very active, energetic and somewhat scruffy friend to the cherry blossoms!