Western silvereye
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Zosterops lateralis chloronotus

The western silvereye (Zosterops lateralis chloronotus ) 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.

Appearance

The upperparts are entirely bright olive-green, with the wings and tail feathers grey, edged with green. The throat and undertail coverts are yellow-green, with the rest of the underparts grey. Circlets of small white feathers surround the eyes. Males are brighter yellow on the throat than females. The birds are 10–13 cm in length and weigh about 10 g. They give a variety of high-pitched calls, with the distinctive and constantly uttered contact call a thin ‘psee’.

Distribution

Geography

The western silvereye is found in Southwest Australia with its range extending northwards to the vicinity of Shark Bay and Carnarvon, and rarely in winter as far as Point Cloates and the De Grey River. In the south its range extends eastwards along the south coast of Western Australia into South Australia at the head of the Great Australian Bight. It also occurs on many offshore islands, including the Houtman Abrolhos and the Archipelago of the Recherche. Habitats used by the bird include both wet and dry sclerophyll forest, temperate eucalypt woodland, mallee woodland and shrubland, and mangroves, as well as areas of and around human habitation.

Habits and Lifestyle

Of the general behaviour of the western silvereye, Serventy and Whittell say:

Bird's call

Diet and Nutrition

Western silvereyes are omnivorous; they eat small insects as well as a wide variety of fruits and nectar. They form mixed-species foraging flocks with several other birds, especially weebills, western gerygones, western, inland and yellow-rumped thornbills, grey fantails and golden whistlers. In summer when their natural food supplies are scarce, they flock to vineyards and orchards and damage grapes and other soft fruits. When marri trees are flowering and producing large amounts of nectar in summer, damage to fruit is usually minimal.

Mating Habits

The western silvereye usually builds a suspended cup-shaped nest of grasses in a shrub or tree. The grasses are bound with spider web and the inner cup lined with finer grasses, wool or horsehair. The cup is about 5 cm across and 2–3 cm deep. Clutch size is two or three, sometimes four, pale blue eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs for a period of 10–13 days, with the young birds leaving the nest about 12 days after hatching. Breeding takes place mainly in the wetter, coastal part of the range from September to January, with the birds forming large flocks and moving further afield once breeding has ceased. When breeding conditions are good, pairs can produce and raise up to four broods in a season.

References

1. Western silvereye Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_silvereye
2. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/107810

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