The white-chested white-eye (''Zosterops albogularis'') also known as white-breasted white-eye or Norfolk white-eye is a passerine from 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 endemic to
Norfolk Island between
New Caledonia and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and it is regarded as either extremely rare or possibly extinct. Since 2000 the Australian government has considered the species extinct.
[Department of the Environment and Heritage]
EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna
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Description
It reaches a length up 13 to 14 centimetres and therefore it is one of the largest white-eyes. The wingspan is 7.5 cm and the weight is about 30 grams. Its appearance is characterized by a pale green head, an olive green coloured neck and white throat and belly parts. A further feature is a conspicuous eye ring of white feathers. Males and females are coloured similarly. Its diet consists of fruits, berries, nectar, and insects. Its only habitat is a 5 km² large forested area around Mount Pitt on Norfolk Island where it lives solitary. In the breeding season from October to December the couple build a cup-shaped nest in which two white eggs are laid. The incubation time lasts eleven days and another eleven days later the juveniles became fully fledged.
Threats
The largest threats are habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
and invasive species. The decline of the white-chested white-eye began as the introduced silvereye
The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis'') is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all membe ...
(''Zosterops lateralis'') became naturalized on Norfolk Island. It displaced the white-chested white-eye from its breeding range. From the 1940s rats destroyed the nests and clearing of the forests led to a severe decline in the population to only 50 individuals in 1962. In 1986 the Norfolk Island National Park was established to save this bird from extinction, but because of the fluctuation of this species, surveys often remained unsuccessful. In 1978 only four individuals were monitored, and a sighting in 2000 resulted in one individual; bird watchers claimed to have seen the bird in 2005.[Hirschfeld, E. (editor) (2007): Rare Birds Yearbook 2008, Magdig Media Ltd., Shrewsbury, England ] However, official surveys have not recorded the species since 1980. A predator-exclusion fence was built around the last remaining habitat in the Norfolk Island National Park.
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References
External links
Recovery Outline White-chested White-eye (engl.)
(German)
* ttp://gallery.shapero.com/index.php?detail=59875&type=print&cat=Birds%2Fornithology&subcat=All Print by John Gould from the Collection Birds of Australia 1840 - 1848
{{Taxonbar, from=Q994409
white-chested white-eye
Extinct birds of Norfolk Island
Endemic birds of Australia
white-chested white-eye