| Canary white-eye | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Zosteropidae |
| Genus: | Zosterops |
| Species: | Z. luteus |
| Binomial name | |
| Zosterops luteus Gould, 1843 | |
The canary white-eye or yellow white-eye (Zosterops luteus) is a species of white-eye endemic to northern Australia in subtropical or tropical mangrove forests. [2] Its common name reflects the circle of white feathers around its eye. [3] [2]
Zosterops luteus is a small white-eye with a bright olive back and yellow underparts and lores. It has a characteristic ring of silver-white feathers around its eyes, with a dark loral stripe. [3] It is a nectar feeder with a short, sharp beak and a brush-tipped tongue similar to the honeyeaters. [4]
The bird is 100–110 mm long, [2] with a wingspan of 52–59 mm, a bill of 13-16mm and weighs between 6.5 and 11.0 grams. [3]
The canary white-eye or yellow white-eye is a member of the family Zosteropidae, known as white-eyes, or silver-eyes. Their distribution includes Africa, south and east Asia, Australia, and many islands in the Indian and west Pacific Oceans. [2]
The lectotype for this species is ANSP 18264, an adult male collected at Port Essington in the Northern Territory and held in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia. There is also a paralectotype ANSP 18265, another adult male collected from the same location. [5]
The species name for the canary white-eye or yellow white-eye is Zosterops luteus Gould, 1843, Greenhill Island, Van Dieman Gulf, Northern Territory, Australia. [6] While there are variations in plumage and size across the range and some intergrading of the races, genetic testing suggests two subspecies split between the western and eastern populations. [7]
Z. l. balstoni Ogilvie-Grant, 1909 [8] is found in coastal northwest Australia from Shark Bay (including Dirk Hartog Island), east to Wotjulum (King Sound) and the Northern Kimberley district. [7]
Z. l. luteus Gould, 1843 [6] is found in coastal northern Australia from the Northern Kimberley district east, including coastal islands of Melville, Bickerton, Groote Eylandt and Sir Edward Pellew Group, to western Cape York Peninsula (Edward River) and an isolated population in eastern Queensland in the region of Ayr to the mouth of Burdekin River. [7]
The family and genus names, Zosteropidae Bonaparte 1853 [9] and Zosterops Vigors & Horsfield 1827, [10] come from the Greek words zoster meaning a warrior's belt or girdle and ops meaning eye. [11] The species name Zosterops luteus combines the genus name with the Latin luteus meaning golden or saffron yellow. [11] The name for the western subspecies balstoni derives from the name of the collector, W.E. Balston, who donated the specimens to the British Museum that Ogilvie-Grant described. Although the name derives from the donor's name, the specimens were collected by Mr G.C. Shortridge who was recognised in the naming of Zosterops shortridgii. [8]
The most commonly-used name for the species in Australia is yellow white-eye. [12]
The bird is found in mangrove, mangal and adjacent riverine vegetation. They feed on insects including larvae in the outer foliage of small trees or shrubs and occasionally on muddy mangrove flats. [3] [7] They are gregarious, usually found in pairs or small flocks.
The IUCN Red List rating, [1] the Northern Territory Conservation Status, Queensland Conservation Status [12] and Western Australian Conservation Status [2] for this species is Least Concern (LC).
Zosterops is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Typical white-eyes have a length of between 8 and 15 cm. Their most characteristic feature is a conspicuous white feather ring around the eye, though some species lack it. The species in this group vary in the structural adaptations of the tongue. The Zosterops [griseotinctus] group is an example of a "great speciator" inhabiting a vast area and showing a remarkable morphological differentiation on islands, some of which maybe as close as 2 km (1.2 mi) apart.
The Indian white-eye, formerly the Oriental white-eye, is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. It is a resident breeder in open woodland on the Indian subcontinent. They forage in small groups, feeding on nectar and small insects. They are easily identified by the distinctive white eye-ring and overall yellowish upperparts. The range previously extended eastwards to Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia but when the taxa in these regions were assigned to other species, the English name was changed.
The little wattlebird, also known as the brush wattlebird, is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is found in coastal and sub-coastal south-eastern Australia.
The sacred kingfisher is a medium-sized woodland kingfisher that occurs in mangroves, woodlands, forests and river valleys in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the western Pacific.
The brown honeyeater belongs to the honeyeaters, a group of birds found mainly in Australia and New Guinea, which have highly developed brush-tipped tongues adapted for nectar feeding. It is a medium-small brownish bird, with yellow-olive panels in the tail and wing, and a yellow tuft behind the eye.
The banded honeyeater is a species of honeyeater in the family Meliphagidae with a characteristic narrow black band across its white underparts. It is endemic to tropical northern Australia.
The cream-throated white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to the northern Moluccas.
The lemon-bellied white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it occurs on a number of islands from the Sunda Strait to the Aru Islands. It is present on several of the Lesser Sunda Islands as well as on parts of Sulawesi, as well as many smaller islands, but is absent from the larger islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Timor. Currently, HBW describes five sub-species of lemon-bellied white-eye. However, the extensive distribution of Z. c. intermedius is likely to contain more than one reproductively isolated population (cf. Z.c. intermedius and Z. c. flavissimus, with the latter now considered a distinct species, the Wakatobi white-eye.
The ashy-bellied white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae found in the Lesser Sunda Islands and northern Cape York Peninsula. It is sometimes called the pale white-eye or pale-bellied white-eye, but should not be confused with the pale-bellied white-eye.
The Solomons white-eye or New Georgia white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to the New Georgia Islands in the Solomon Islands. It is also known as Zosterops rendovae but this name properly refers to the grey-throated white-eye.
The Malagasy white-eye is a species of bird in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae. Found in the Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, and Seychelles, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
The Mayotte white-eye or chestnut-sided white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is now found only on Mayotte in the Comoro Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.
The Christmas white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Christmas Island. Its natural habitats are tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and subtropical or tropical moist shrubland. It is threatened by habitat destruction.
The olive-colored white-eye, also known as the olive white-eye, Yap olive white-eye or great Yap white-eye, is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae.
The Réunion olive white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is found on Réunion. Its natural habitats are boreal forests and subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland.
The northern yellow white-eye, formerly the African yellow white-eye, is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is found across sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal in the west across to southern Sudan in the east and south to northern Angola.
The robust white-eye, also known as the Lord Howe white-eye or robust silvereye and locally as the "big grinnell", was a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It was endemic to the lowland forests of Lord Howe Island, east of Australia.
The Pemba white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to Tanzania.
The Togian white-eye is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae.
The western silvereye is a small greenish bird in the Zosteropidae or White-eye family. It is a subspecies of the silvereye that occurs in Western Australia and South Australia. It is sometimes called the white-eye or greenie. Aboriginal names for the bird include jule-we-de-lung or julwidilang from the Perth area and poang from the Pallinup River.
