Japanese White-eye
| Zosterops japonicus | Order: Passeriformes | Family: Zosteropidae (White-eyes, Yuhinas, and Allies) |
The taxonomy of the species formerly known as the Japanese White-eye has undergone some seismic changes since its DNA was carefully studied and the results published in 2018. The white-eyes native to the Philippines were long considered a separate species (the Mountain White-eye) but have now been lumped with the Japanese White-eye, so the name of the combined species was changed to the Warbling White-eye. At the same time, some populations of the original Japanese White-eye were found to be genetically distinct and split into a new species, Swinhoe’s White-eye. The Warbling White-eye is native to much of East Asia, including the Russian Far East, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines.
We birders are naturally thrilled to add lifers, and the Warbling White-eye is a pretty little thing that stays tantalizingly out of reach, flitting about almost non-stop within vegetation. Getting a good look can’t help but give us a sense of accomplishment, amplified even more if we get an in-focus photo.
But like many of the beautiful, non-native songbirds in Hawaii, the more we know, the more we realize what a mistake it was when people introduced them there. White-eyes were released in Hawaii primarily to control insects, but they haven’t had much effect on that. Meanwhile, they disseminate seeds from some invasive plants, steal nesting materials from native birds’ nests. and are a vector for some of the parasites and diseases that are critically endangering native Hawaiian species. The Warbling White-eye’s generalist diet—seeds, insects, and nectar taken from ground level to treetop height–gives it a big advantage over the native, nectar-dependent Hawaiian honeycreepers.
A lot of details about how the Warbling White-eye has impacted the Hawaiian ecosystem are included in this Wikipedia article, “Japanese white-eye in Hawaii”.
Interestingly, the form of the Japanese White-eye that was found in Southern California in 2018 and confirmed nesting in San Diego County in 2019 is not the Warbling White-eye but Swinhoe’s. I’ve never seen nor photographed that species.