Everett's White-eye

The White-eyes Zosterops are tiny birds of greenish-yellow plumage, some more green and others more yellow. They owe their English name to the presence of a circle of white feathers round the eye.  It is a common cage bird of the oriental region.

They are active birds of the canopy that behave rather like sunbirds or flowerpeckers, except that they usually occur in small, loose parties.

Everett's White-eye Zosterops everetti is a scarce resident of Borneo, it is chiefly sub-montane but occuring down close to sea level, being the only White-eye that occurs in inland lowland forests.

It is very similar to the Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus which usually occur along coastal mangrove, swamp and riverine forests.

Everett's White-eye can be distinguished from Oriental White-eye by habitat, darker and greener upper parts, no pale yellow streak above black lores, has semicircle under the eye, with broader yellow ventral stripe to undertail converts (Oriental has thinner yellow ventral stripe). In Sabah, the situation is much easier because no Oriental White-eye had been recorded from the east coast, all existing records were from west coast interior. Borneo records were mostly from Coastal Sarawak and Brunei.

This Everett's White-eye was photographed in Tawau, my number 326 photographed wild birds of Borneo, two of them were seen feeding on a fruiting tree bearing tiny fruits.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

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