The sangkar white-eye (''Zosterops melanurus'') is a bird

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the family

Zosteropidae The white-eyes are a family, Zosteropidae, of 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 ...

. It is also known as the Sunda white-eye. It is found in forested habitats on the Indonesian islands of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

. In Java it is typically found at elevations between , but it sometimes occurs at lower elevations as well. This species was formerly treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

with the

Indian white-eye The Indian white-eye (''Zosterops palpebrosus''), formerly the Oriental white-eye, is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. It is a resident breeder in open woodland on the Indian subcontinent. They forage in small groups, feeding on n ...

(previously the Oriental white-eye, ''Zosterops palpebrosus''), but based on the results of a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2018, it was promoted to species rank. The sangkar white-eye has two subspecies, ''Zosterops melanurus melanurus'' in eastern Java and Bali and ''Z. m. buxtoni'' in western Java. (A population of white-eyes on

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

that was historically considered part of the latter subspecies may in fact belong to

Hume's white-eye Hume's white-eye (''Zosterops auriventer'') is a bird species in the family Zosteropidae. It is found in upland areas of Myanmar, southern Thailand, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. This species was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Indian ...

.) The two subspecies differ notably in appearance: ''Z. m. melanurus'' has entirely yellow underparts, while ''Z. m. buxtoni'' has a grey belly. They differ little genetically, however, and commonly interbreed where their ranges overlap. The sangkar white-eye feeds on insects, and favours the introduced ''

Sesbania grandiflora ''Sesbania grandiflora'', commonly known as vegetable hummingbird, katurai, agati, or West Indian pea, is a small leguminous tree native to Maritime Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. It has edible flowers and leaves commonly eaten in Southea ...

'' when hunting. The breeding season is from January to October, with a peak in May and June. The sangkar white-eye is considered threatened due to extensive trapping for the caged bird trade in Indonesia. It has the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily trapped and traded wild bird species in the world, and its common name was coined to reflect this: sangkar translates to birdcage in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q62071767 Sangkar white-eye Birds of Java Birds of Bali Sangkar white-eye