Japanese Bantam vs. Serama

One of the smallest breeds of bantams, in addition to Serama are Japanese Bantam. Sometimes people confuse them with a pet quality Serama that has a horizontal carriage but even then there are differences between the two.

Here are photos of Japanese Bantams that were graciously submitted by a few Japanese Bantam breeders. I specifically looked for Japanese Bantams from exhibition breeders in order to have an honest comparison between the two.

Something I want to bring to your attention is that every one of these birds is standing up. They are a short legged breed. In the Serama world this is called “creeper leg” and is a fault that is a DQ. The next thing that is easy to see is their tails are MUCH taller than their bodies! For a lot of them that tail also goes toward their heads. If a Serama had a tail that angled in that direction it is called “squirrel tail”.

They are a short backed breed, much like Serama, however, that back is in more of a horizontal orientation vs the vertical orientation the Serama has. The wing carriage is also very horizontal which, again, differs from the vertical wing carriage of the Serama.

The chest, though it is large and round, they carry their chests low in relation to their body vs a Serama that has a higher chest carriage. Finally, the size of the comb and wattle, for the males especially, is much larger than that of a Serama. Serama should have a small comb and wattle.

In summary, though both are small bantams there are quite a few stark differences.