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What is the national bird of Japan?

The pheasant is now regarded as the national bird of Japan.
It originally was designated as such in 1947 at the 81st Meeting of the National Bird Society of Japan.
The Japanese pheasant, or kiji, was most likely selected because this green pheasant is unique to Japan, and furthermore because it appears often in Japanese folk tales and so has become an integral part of the Japanese cultural landscape.