This colorful tit has been used in traditional fortune telling. A caged bird takes a coin, puts it in a box, rings a bell, unties a string and retrieves a written fortune from a miniature shrine. This is the nominate race found on Japan's main islands and Korea. They are relatively large with white cheeks, white chest patch below the dark bib, and chestnut patch on upper back as seen here. Other smaller, darker races are restricted to small islands with the race orii believed extinct. Varied Tit has recently been split into four species based on a 2014 recommendation by Mckay et al :
Chestnut-bellied Tit (Sittiparus castaneoventris) which occurs only on Taiwan
Iriomote Tit (Sittiparus olivaceus) which occurs only on Iriomote in the southern Ryukyu Islands
Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius), which is widespread from Russia and Japan through much of China
Owston’s Tit (Sittiparus owstoni) which occurs only in the south Izu Islands of Miyake-jima, Mikura-jima and Hachijo-jima.
Canon PowerShot SX60
References:
Brazil, M. (1991). Birds of Japan. Smithsonian Inst. Press.
Gosler, A., Clement, P. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/59870 on 14 April 2019).
Harrap, S. & Quinn. D. (1995) Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches & Treecreepers. Princeton Univ. Press.
Mckay B D, Jr M H, Yao C T, et al. (2014) Incorporating color into integrative taxonomy: analysis of the varied tit (Sittiparus varius) complex in East Asia. Systematic Biology. 63(4):505-517.