Javan White-eye Zosterops flavus Scientific name definitions

9·5 cm. Very small white-eye with relatively very short tail. Has frontal area yellow, crown and upperparts between pyrite-yellow and olive-green, rump more yellowish; lores pale yellow, white eyering of average width; primaries and tail feathers brownish-black, edged yellowish-green; entire underside yellow, on flanks and breast side merging into colour of mantle; iris bright yellowish-brown; bill dark horn above, plumbeous below; legs leaden blue. Differs from <em>Z. chloris</em> in lack of black on lores. Sexes alike. Juvenile has narrower eyering than adult.

W & S Borneo, including Laut I (off SE Kalimantan); coastal N Java and Madura I.

In Borneo inhabits mangrove forest and dryland forest edge along coast, locally low waterside trees in small towns and nearby wet coconut groves upriver (up to 10 km inland), also gardens around towns. In Java found in mangroves (also plantations), and herb and shrub areas, but may be more closely associated with remaining pieces of coastal forest than with mangrove.

Resident.

Almost exclusively small insects, e.g. small beetles (Coleoptera) and small caterpillars. Arboreal foliage-gleaning species; never comes to the ground, as it lives mostly in inundated woodland. Forages in tight groups of 10–40 individuals, sometimes up to 50. Visits especially the flowers of the langsat tree (Lansium domesticum).

No song known. Call notes “trrieew” and short, soft “trrip”; alarm “wiwiwiwi”.

Recorded in May; many pairs with fledged young at end of Jul in W Java, and fledged young and juvenile in Aug in S Borneo. Small, neatly built nest of thin grass blades, lined with many fine stalks, and covered externally with much cobweb, placed 1 m above ground. Clutch 2–3 eggs, very pale blue, 15·4 × 11·4 mm.

VULNERABLE. Restricted range species: present in Javan Coastal Zone EBA and in Bornean Coastal Zone Secondary Area. Highly restricted and fragmented range along the N coast of Java and S coast of Borneo. Locally common, but rapidly declining over large parts of range. Moderate to large numbers recorded at night-time roosts, from which they disperse during day. Little known on Kalimantan. In Java and on Madura I, this species’ favoured habitat of mangroves is now much reduced and remains under continuous threat; widespread in 2006–2009, but scarcer and found in smaller flocks since (1 Eaton, J. A., C. R. Shepherd, F. E. Rheindt, J. B. C. Harris, S. (B.) van Balen, D. S. Wilcove, and N. J. Collar (2015). Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia. Forktail 31:1–12. Close ). Very large numbers of white-eyes are sold in markets throughout Indonesia, chiefly Oriental White-eye Zosterops palebrosus. Trade not previously thought to be a threat to this species BirdLife International (2016) Species factsheet: Zosterops flavus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 13/06/2016. , but trappers with decoy birds were seen at Javan mangrove sites in 2009, captive birds noted in local villages (1 Eaton, J. A., C. R. Shepherd, F. E. Rheindt, J. B. C. Harris, S. (B.) van Balen, D. S. Wilcove, and N. J. Collar (2015). Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia. Forktail 31:1–12. Close ), and 42 birds were observed in the three main markets on Java in 2014 (2 Chng, S. C. L., J. A. Eaton, K. Krishnasamy, C. R. Shepherd, and V. Nijman (2015). In the Market for Extinction: An Inventory of Jakarta’s Bird Markets. TRAFFIC, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Close ); a single bird was found for sale in a Singapore bird shop in Nov 2015 (1 Eaton, J. A., C. R. Shepherd, F. E. Rheindt, J. B. C. Harris, S. (B.) van Balen, D. S. Wilcove, and N. J. Collar (2015). Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia. Forktail 31:1–12. Close ). Although a poor songster, may be sold as a companion bird or fraudulently as a more attractive congener (1 Eaton, J. A., C. R. Shepherd, F. E. Rheindt, J. B. C. Harris, S. (B.) van Balen, D. S. Wilcove, and N. J. Collar (2015). Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia. Forktail 31:1–12. Close ). Formerly considered Near Threatened, it was uplisted to Vulnerable in 2016.