Plain White-eye Zosterops hypolais Scientific name definitions

10 cm. Rather nondescript white-eye with pale eye; crown feathers often ruffled, creating big-headed profile. Plumage is greenish-grey above, slightly more greenish on crown and uppertail-coverts; narrow dirty-white loral line, very narrow white eyering, traces of dusky under eyering; remiges and rectrices blackish-brown with citrine outer margins; throat, upper breast, centre of belly and undertail-coverts yellow, flanks washed pale buff; iris white; bill fuscous, paler basal part of lower mandible; legs plumbeous. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed.

Yap I, in extreme W Caroline Is.

Wide variety of habitats, from forest canopy to grassy fields; at edge of jungle is usually confined to undergrowth.

Not known.

No details of diet. Forages in small flocks, but not so conspicuous and noisy as other members of genus. Flocks often feed in grass less than 1 m tall. Movements slower and more deliberate than those of other white-eyes, e.g. Z. conspicillatus.

Song of short, chirping phrases, “chee-twee-chulip…” and so on, slower than those of related congeners. Calls with thin trilled “chee” notes, and buzzy “zee-up”.

One nest found, woven from grasses, suspended c. 3 m above ground in fork of tree at edge of dense forest. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near-threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Yap Islands EBA. Widespread and common on Yap, where 2–15 individuals found in every c. 100-m stretch of forest edge. Although not at any immediate risk, this species, because of its tiny global range, could suffer greatly from any adverse meteorological event or accidental introduction of predators.