Much like human beings, Oriental White-eyes are social birds. You’ll see them congregating in flocks as small as 10 or much larger, everywhere — even in your backyard. You’ll even see them in mixed flocks, with birds from other species.
These are small birds with green to yellowish-green upperparts, dark beaks, and a prominent white eye-ring. The males and the females look alike.
They thrive in a variety of habitats (scrubs, groves, gardens, orchards, forests), climate zones, and altitudes. In fact, they’re known to be good colonizers, even adapting well to disturbed habitats (such as cities).
The scientific name , Zosterops palpebrosus, describes the bird as having a prominent eye ring. Zosterops translates to “girdle eye”, from the Greek words zoster ( girdle) and ops (eye). Palpebrosus means they have prominent eyelids.
White-eyes are mostly arboreal (living in trees), as they move through trees and bushes, foraging for food, while constantly calling out to other flock members in the form of a feeble soft nasal‘cheer’.
When they travel in mixed flocks, birdwatchers refer to the groupings as ‘mixed-hunting parties’. Such a flocking might improve feeding efficiency or provide better protection from predators.
The flocks dissipate to an extent, from February to September. This marks the breeding season, when the pairs have to nest and take care of the young ones, before being ready to join the flock again. The nest is built in a compact cup-shape, made of cobwebs and plant fibre.
When in forests, the Oriental White-eyes have been observed to be insectivores, but when in cities, they are often seen feeding on fruits like mulberry. Their preference of food changes from habitat to habitat, depending on the availability of ready sources in the areas.
They are often found on flowers for nectar and insects, which are likely to be around these flowers. This makes the Oriental White-eye an important pollinator. And because of the pollen, their foreheads sometimes assume an orangish-red colour (from the usual yellow).
Despite their adaptive nature, the population of the Oriental White-eyes is declining. This is especially due to habitat degradation, a drop in food base (fruiting trees and insects), and also due to the increase in the number of bigger birds like bulbuls and crows, who are even more adept at adapting to their environment.
The writer is the founder of NINOX - Owl About Nature, a nature-awareness initiative. He is the Delhi-NCR reviewer for Ebir, a Cornell University initiative, monitoring rare sightings of birds. He foremerly led a programme at WWF India.
