The robust white-eye (''Zosterops strenuus''), also known as the Lord Howe white-eye or robust silvereye and locally as the "big grinnell", is an extinct species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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 was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the lowland forests of

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

, east of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Description

It was a mainly green bird, around 7.6 cm long, with a white belly and yellow throat, which separated it from other species of white-eye. The robust white-eye built loosely constructed, cup-shaped nests out of palm fibre and dried grasses, which were sometimes found in shrubs overgrown with vines. This made the species vulnerable to predation by

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

s (''Rattus rattus''), which were accidentally introduced in 1918 following the grounding of the steamship S.S. ''Makambo'' on the island. Although once common, the bird was extinct by 1923. Despite its small size, the bird was known to islanders as "big grinnell", to differentiate it from the much smaller but related "little grinnell", or

Lord Howe silvereye The Lord Howe silvereye (''Zosterops lateralis tephropleurus''), also known as the Lord Howe white-eye, Lord Howe Island white-eye or, locally, as the "Little Grinnell", is a small bird in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae. It is a subspecies o ...

(''Zosterops lateralis tephropleurus''), a subspecies of the

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 ...

. This subspecies is still hanging on, but is threatened with extinction.

References

*Day, David (1981), ''The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species'', London, Universal Books Ltd., pp109–110,

robust white-eye The robust white-eye (''Zosterops strenuus''), also known as the Lord Howe white-eye or robust silvereye and locally as the "big grinnell", is an extinct species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It was Endemism, endemic to the lowland forests ...

Endemic birds of Australia Extinct birds of Lord Howe Island

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