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Silvereye

Zosterops lateralis lateralis

Photo by Liana
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

This is an an adult (on the RHS in the photo) with food in its bill, about to feed a young one waiting with its beak open. They are a beautiful multicoloured bird of olive-green, a ring of white around the eye, whitish-cream on the throat and upper breast, creamy grey on the belly and undertail, the flanks are pinkish-buff, the thighs are white, and the underside of the wings creamy-white. The dark brownish-black bill is fine, short and sharply pointed. The iris is dark reddish-brown, and the legs and feet pale brown.

Habitat:

Sitting in a native tree at the beginning of the Okia Reserve loop walk (https://www.yellow-eyedpenguin.org.nz/our-work/yept-reserves/okia/ )

Notes:

The silvereye's Māori name is Tauhou, which means 'stranger' or more literally, 'new arrival', colonising Aotearoa from Australia in the 1850s.
An article from 2020 about a leucistic Tauhou: https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/120863029/extremely-rare-bird-photo…
Another interesting article from New Zealand Herald: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/abnormal-bill-on-dunedin-wax-eye-raises-e…

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