Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis flaviceps, also known as the gray-backed white-eye, western silvereye, gray-backed silvereye, gray-breasted silvereye, the wax-eye or occasionally simply as the white-eye, photographed at Kadavu Island, Fiji.
Image: Kevin Sharp [velociraptorize].
Question: This tiny songbird closely resembles another species that lives on the same island. Can you identify this species and tell me how to distinguish it from its relative?
Response: This is an adult silvereye, Zosterops lateralis flaviceps. This bird, which is endemic to Fiji, is apparently one of 16 subspecies of silvereyes that occur throughout the islands of the south Pacific.
This silvereye is often confused with the Fijian white-eye, but it feeds higher up in the trees than the white-eye and it is much paler in colour, has a slenderer body and a "broken" (or incomplete) eye-ring.
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