Annobon White-eye Zosterops griseovirescens Scientific name definitions

12 cm; two birds 11 g. Top of head and upperparts are greyish-olive, with paler side of crown, sometimes a narrow creamy pale green to lemon-yellow supraloral line; conspicuous white eyering broader above than below and broken at front (and sometimes behind eye), black lores and dusky line below and behind eye; ear-coverts streaked greyish; flight-feathers blackish-brown, edged olive-green; central tail feathers olive-green, the rest blackish with broad olive-green fringes on outer webs; very pale sulphur-yellow on chin, throat, midline of belly and vent, otherwise buff below, greyer at side, with pale tawny-buff flanks; axillaries and underwing-coverts white; iris light brown; bill blackish or horn-brown; legs brownish-grey. Sexes alike. Immature is like adult but slightly yellower below.

Annobón I (Pagalu), in Gulf of Guinea.

Woody vegetation of all types, from moist forest, dry Steganthus/Lannea forest, savanna forest, and dense oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and mango (Mangifera) plantations to small shrubs and trees around grassy cultivated patches of cassava (Manihot esculenta). Sea-level to highest peak, at 655 m.

Sedentary.

Mainly small insects, especially ants (Formicidae); also small seeds. In pairs and in flocks of up to ten individuals. Forages from smallest bush to crowns of tallest emergent trees, but keeps mainly to lower strata in primary and regrowth forest.

Laying Oct–Feb. Nest a small, neat, closely woven and quite robust cup of fine grass and vegetable fibres, placed among small twigs in small acacia tree (Acacia), cassava bush, or even in introduced “leafless” cactus Rhipsalis hanging on rock face in shady bouldery ground. Clutch 2 eggs, white, 18 × 13·5 mm. No other information.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in Annobón EBA. Abundant. Total population guessed at 7000–9000 individuals. The dominant bird species on the tiny island (17·5 km²) of Annobón, where the only other resident passerine is the Annobón race of Red-bellied Paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone rufiventer smithii). Population may even be growing with disturbance of vegetation. Nevertheless, it has a tiny global range, and any natural catastrophic events would put in at serious risk.