white-eye, common name for warblerlike, arboreal birds, including 85 species in the family Zosteropidae, and for certain species of ducks. The members of Zosteropidae, with the exception of a few species, are marked by a ring of tiny, white feathers surrounding the eye and are also known as silvereyes and spectacle birds. They are predominantly olive to yellow-green above, with whitish or grayish abdomens. With the exception of a few species of the genus Zosterops, such as Z. erythropleura of NE China, white-eyes are tropical, dwelling in wooded habitats from sea level to timberline and ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to Asia and Australia. They are typically small, except for several giant species such as two in the South Pacific genus Woodfordia, which also lack the white eye ring. Aided by their short, pointed, slightly decurved bills and brushlike tongues, white-eyes feed on a varied diet consisting of insects, fruits, berries, and nectar. They are much disliked by farmers because of their habit of piercing fruit with their bills. White-eyes are highly gregarious birds, given to constantly calling in a soft, warbling song. They build their deep, cup-shaped nests in tree forks, in which the female deposits two or three white or pale blue eggs. Incubation periods may be as short as 101/2 days, among the shortest known of any bird. The common name white-eye is also given to certain of the unrelated pochards (ducklike birds) of the family Anatidae and especially to the white-eyed pochard (Nyroca ferina). These are probably called white-eyes for their tiny irises set in a large white sclera. Although these white-eyes are worldwide in distribution, they are found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. N. ferina is found throughout Great Britain and Europe. In its breeding plumage, it has a chestnut-red head with a light gray body bordered in black on the breast and tail. With their webbed feet set far back on their bodies, pochards are poor walkers, but they are among the best of the diving birds. They feed on a variety of aquatic animals, using their muscular tongues as pistons to pump water through their bills. The water is strained through bony plates lining the inner edges of the bill. Their young are especially well developed at birth and rapidly take to water. White-eyes are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Zosteropidae; or order Anseriformes, family Anatidae.

The white-eyes are small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Guinea. Discounting some widespread members of the genus Zosterops, most species are endemic to single islands or archipelagos. The Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, naturally colonised New Zealand, where it is known as the "Wax-eye" or Tauhau ("stranger"), from 1855. The Silvereye has also been introduced to Hawaii.

Characteristics

White-eyes are mostly of undistinguished appearance, the plumage being generally greenish olive above, and pale grey below. Some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. As their common name implies, many species have a conspicuous ring of tiny white feathers around their eyes. The scientific name of the group also reflects this latter feature, being derived from the Ancient Greek for "girdle-eye". They have rounded wings and strong legs. Like many other nectivorous birds, they have slender, pointed bills, and brush-tipped tongues. The size ranges up to 15cm (6 inches) in length.

All the species of white-eyes are sociable, forming large flocks which only separate on the approach of the breeding season. They build tree nests and lay 2-4 unspotted pale blue eggs. Though mainly insectivorous, they eat nectar and fruits of various kinds. The Silvereye can be a problem in Australian vineyards, through piercing the grape allowing infection or insect damage to follow.

Systematics

The white-eyes were long considered a distinct family Zosteropidae because they are rather homogenous in morphology and ecology, leading top little adaptive radiation and divergence. The genus Apalopteron, formerly placed in the Meliphagidae, was transferred to the white-eyes on genetic evidence. It differs much in appearance from the typical white-eyes, Zosterops, but is approached by some Micronesian taxa; its color pattern is fairly unique save the imperfect white eye-ring.

In 2003, Alice Cibois published the results of her study of mtDNA cytochrome b and 12S/16S rRNA sequence data. According to her results, the white-eyes were likely to form a clade also containing the Yuhinas, which were until then placed with the Old World babblers, a large "wastebin" family. Previous molecular studies (e.g. Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Barker et al. 2002) had together with the morphological evidence tentatively placed white-eyes as the Timaliidae's closest relatives already. But some questions remained, mainly because the white-eyes are all very similar birds in habitus and habits, while the Old World babblers are very diverse (because, as we now know, the group as formerly defined was polyphyletic).

Combined with the yuhinas (and possibly other Timaliidae), the limits of the white-eye clade to the "true" Old World babblers becomes indistinct. Therefore, the current (early 2007) opinion weighs towards merging the group into the Timaliidae, perhaps as a subfamily ("Zosteropinae"). Few white-eyes have been thoroughly studied with the new results in mind, however, and almost all of these are from Zosterops which even at this point appears over-lumped. Also, many "Old World babblers" remain of unresolved relationships. Whether there can be a clear delimitation of a white-eye subfamily or even a young or emerging family is a question that requires a more comprehensive study of both this group and Timaliidae to resolve.(Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006)

For example, a revision of the yuhinas and the genus Stachyris (Cibois et al. 2002), based on the same genes as Cibois (2003), revealed that the Philippine species placed in the latter genus by some were actually yuhinas. However, when the review by Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) was published, no study had tried to propose a phylogeny for the newly-defined yuhinas including the white-eyes. Therefore, Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) give a rather misleading phylogeny for the group. It appears as if the yuhinas are polyphyletic, with the White-collared Yuhina being closer to the ancestor of the Zosterops white-eyes than to other yuhinas including the species moved from Stachyris (Cibois et al. 2002).

Diversity

Family: ZOSTEROPIDAE

• Genus Speirops
• Fernando Po Speirops, Speirops brunneus
• Principe Speirops, Speirops leucophoeus
• Black-capped Speirops, Speirops lugubris
• Cameroon Speirops, Speirops melanocephalus
• Genus Zosterops - typical white-eyes (some 75 species, 1-3 recently extinct; polyphyletic)
• Genus Rukia - Eastern Carolines White-eyes
• Long-billed White-eye, Rukia longirostra
• Truk White-eye, Rukia ruki
• Genus Cleptornis
• Golden White-eye, Cleptornis marchei
• Genus Tephrozosterops
• Rufescent White-eye, Tephrozosterops stalkeri
• Genus Madanga
• Rufous-throated White-eye, Madanga ruficollis

• Genus Lophozosterops
• Crested White-eye, Lophozosterops dohertyi
• Black-masked White-eye, Lophozosterops goodfellowi
• Javan Grey-throated White-eye, Lophozosterops javanicus
• Grey-hooded White-eye, Lophozosterops pinaiae
• Streaky-headed White-eye, Lophozosterops squamiceps
• Yellow-browed White-eye, Lophozosterops superciliaris
• Genus Oculocincta
• Pygmy White-eye, Oculocincta squamifrons
• Genus Heleia
• Thick-billed White-eye, Heleia crassirostris
• Spot-breasted White-eye, Heleia muelleri
• Genus Chlorocharis
• Mountain Blackeye, Chlorocharis emiliae
• Genus Woodfordia
• Sanford's White-eye, Woodfordia lacertosa
• Bare-eyed White-eye, Woodfordia superciliosa
• Genus Megazosterops - sometimes placed in Rukia
• Giant White-eye, Megazosterops palauensis
• Genus Hypocryptadius
• Cinnamon Ibon, Hypocryptadius cinnamomeus
• Genus Apalopteron - Bonin White-eye (formerly "Bonin Honeyeater")

If the white-eyes are maintained as a separate family or subfamily, this yuhinas would have to be included there too.

• Genus Yuhina - yuhinas (found to be polyphyletic and now split into five genera)
• White-collared Yuhina, Yuhina diademata
• White-naped Yuhina, Yuhina bakeri
• Whiskered Yuhina, Yuhina flavicollis
• Burmese Yuhina, Yuhina humilis
• Stripe-throated Yuhina, Yuhina gularis
• Rufous-vented Yuhina, Yuhina occipitalis
• Taiwan Yuhina, Yuhina brunneiceps
• Black-chinned Yuhina, Yuhina nigrimenta
• Genus Staphida
• Striated Yuhina, Staphida castaniceps
• Chestnut-collared Yuhina, Staphida torqueola
• Chestnut-crested Yuhina, Staphida everetti
• Genus Dasycrotapha - formerly in Stachyris; tentatively placed here
• Flame-templed Babbler, Dasycrotapha speciosa
• Genus Sterrhoptilus - formerly in Stachyris; tentatively placed here
• Mindanao Pygmy Babbler (or Yuhina), Sterrhoptilus plateni
• Visayan Pygmy Babbler (or Yuhina), Sterrhoptilus pygmaeus
• Golden-crowned Babbler (or Yuhina), Sterrhoptilus dennistouni
• Black-crowned Babbler (or Yuhina), Sterrhoptilus nigrocapitata
• Rusty-crowned Babbler (or Yuhina), Sterrhoptilus capitalis
• Genus Zosterornis - formerly in Stachyris; tentatively placed here
• Chestnut-faced Babbler (or Yuhina), Zosterornis whiteheadi
• Luzon Striped Babbler (or Yuhina), Zosterornis striatus
• Panay Striped Babbler (or Yuhina), Zosterornis latistriatus
• Negros Striped Babbler (or Yuhina), Zosterornis nigrorum
• Palawan Striped Babbler (or Yuhina), Zosterornis hypogrammicus

References

• Alström, Per; Ericson, Per G.P.; Olsson, Urban & Sundberg, Per (2006): Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38(2): 381–397.
• Barker, F. Keith; Barrowclough, George F. & Groth, Jeff G. (2002): A phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds: taxonomic and biogeographic implications of an analysis of nuclear DNA sequence data. Proc. R. Soc. B 269(1488): 295-308. PDF fulltext
• Cibois, Alice (2003): Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny of Babblers (Timaliidae). Auk 120(1): 1-20. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0035:MDPOBT]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
• Cibois, Alice; Kalyakin, Mikhail V.; Lian-Xian, Han & Pasquet, Eric (2002): Molecular phylogenetics of babblers (Timaliidae): revaluation of the genera Yuhina and Stachyris. J. Avian Biol. 33: 380–390. (HTML abstract)
• del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 9788496553422
• Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zool. Scripta 35(2): 149–186. (HTML abstract)
• Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.

External links

• White-Eye videos on the Internet Bird Collection