Yellowish White-eye – Zosterops nigrorum

Endemic species “Level 1*” (“classical”) – published on 17th of Avril 2020
Page fully published with BANGKONG KAHOY
See Zosteropidae family (white-eyes)
In French: Zostérops jaunâtre en français

This classic white-eye is the only yellow-bellied species Zosterops in its limited range (North and the central Philippines with an isolated population on Camiguin Sur). It lives in forests (primary or not) and forest patches in open areas in lowland and hills up to about 900 meters asl, rarely to 1250 meters. Tolerant of human activity, it is still common and not decreasing significantly.

No detail about its breeding is published, and diet is similar to other species of the genus: little invertebrates, berries, and tiny fruits.

INCREDIBLY CONFIDENT WHITE-EYES IN BANGKONG KAHOY:

White-eyes are often frequent and easily seen birds, but frustrating for the photographers. They are ever-moving, nervous, and so little that having a photo can be very challenging. In the case of a forest bird-like our Yellowish White-eye, it is even worse. Either in the back-light canopy or in the undergrowth darkness, there is always a reason to miss the perfect shot.

On the same terrace where we got some of our photos of Sulphur-billed Nuthatch, the most often seen species is usually the Yellowish White-eye. Sometimes, the birds are so close to the building that the photos are effortless to take. Besides, to be a protected area, the flowers that are decorating the surroundings of the building seem to be attractive to the passerines, and they are tame enough to accept the presence of the photographers. Thanks to that “magic” spot, we can now publish a page on our nice endemic white-eye. All the three photos below and the two above are taken there. The local subspecies is Z. n. innominatus.

Bangkong Kahoy organises many conservation projects described HERE, please click to discover.

Text by Valéry Schollaert and
Marinella Mejia

Taxonomy and subspecies

This endemic is usually divided into 8 sub-species, 4 of them being on Luzon and 3 are endemic to one island. They vary slightly on the deepness of the yellow, the size of the bill, width of the eye-ring, and size of the thin black line below the eye-ring.

It is fairly distinct to all other white-eyes, and no sister-species are currently known.