The Réunion olive white-eye (''Zosterops olivaceus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

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 found on

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are boreal

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s and subtropical or tropical high-altitude

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

Description

like the name suggests the bird is olive green on the back and yellow on the rump, gray on the belly and black on the head. Its eye is surrounded by a circle of white feathers. The male and female are undifferentiated.

Habitat

This bird lives in, between 500 and 2,500 meters. It is frequently found in the Réunion National Park or in the Bélouve forest. He likes places where the yellow flower ''tree "Hypericum lanceolatum''''"'' grow. Its thin, slightly curved beak allows it to reach the

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

of flowers.

Behavior

The green bird is always on the move. It has difficulty supporting the presence of conspecifics and can be aggressive.

Diet

The green bird is mainly nectarivorous but it also feeds on fruit pulp and

insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...

Breeding

Breeding takes place from June/July to January. The female lays 2 to 3 eggs in a cup-shaped nest made of twigs, down and moss. Several couples can live together in the same nest, taking turns brooding the broods of their roommates.

History

In 1760 the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosophy, natural philosopher. Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée department of western France. Note that page 14 ...

included a description of the Reunion olive white-eye in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen that had been brought to Paris from

Île Bourbon Ile or ILE may refer to: Ile * Ile, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino aci ...

(now Réunion), but which Brisson mistakenly believed had been collected in Madagascar. He used the French name ''Le grimpereau olive de Madagascar'' and the Latin ''Certhia Madagascariensis Olivaceus''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Reunion olive white-eye. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Certhia olivacea'' and cited Brisson's work. He followed Brisson and gave the type location as Madagascar instead of Réunion. This species is now placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Zosterops ''Zosterops'' (meaning "eye-Zoster (costume), girdle") is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the A ...

'' that was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

in 1827. The title page is dated 1826. There are no recognised

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

Annexe

Informations complémentaires

* List of bird species in Reunion Island. * Endemic fauna of Reunion Island

References

Birds described in 1766 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Endemic birds of Réunion Birds of Réunion Zosterops Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Zosteropidae-stub