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Fiji white-eye

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Fiji white-eye
In forest at De Voeux Peak on Taveuni
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Zosteropidae
Genus: Zosterops
Species:
Z. explorator
Binomial name
Zosterops explorator
Layard, 1875
Range highlighted in red

The Fiji white-eye (Zosterops explorator) is a species of passerine bird in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The species is also known as Layard's white-eye.[2]

Illustrated by Joseph Smit (1881)

It is endemic to the islands of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni, Kadavu, and Ovalau in Fiji, where it is a common bird of forests.[3] Where it co-occurs with the closely related silvereye it is more common in denser forest.

It is a typical small white-eye of the genus Zosterops, similar in appearance to the silvereye, although the plumage is much yellower, it is chunkier and has a complete eye-ring.[3] The back is olive green and the throat and belly yellow. The call is described as "a high pitched seeu-seeu".

The Fiji white-eye feeds by gleaning insects from shrubs and trees. It will join mixed-species feeding flocks with other Fijian birds, including silvereyes. It also feeds lower down in the trees than silvereyes.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Zosterops explorator". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22714238A94407690. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22714238A94407690.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Pacific Birds (2001) List of the Birds of Fiji. Downloaded 22 July 2008
  3. ^ a b Pratt, H., Bruner, P & Berrett, D. (1987) The Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific Princeton University Press:Princeton ISBN 0-691-08402-5
  4. ^ Langham (1989) "Stratification of passerines in Fijian forests Archived 2008-10-17 at the Wayback Machine". Notornis 36 (4): 267-285