Japanese white-eye, lowland white-eye or something else? (2 Viewers)

[Tangaroa79]

Hi all, this was taken just outside of the Dansui Mangrove Reserve in Taipei, Taiwan. It as in an urban park next to the reserve. Assumed it was a Japanese white-eye but after looking at my bird guide and (admittedly) using an AI app I’m not so sure. The app identified it as Swinhoe’s white-eye, which isn’t even in my Taiwan bites guide book.

Any help is much appreciated 🙏

 

[redpandacat]

There were taxonomic changes in recent years. It wasn't the simplest mapping and many subspecies were shuffled around.

I think these are the expected species and subspecies:
Swinhoe's White-eye (previously part of Japanese White-eye): Zosterops simplex simplex
Warbling White-eye (previously called Japanese White-eye): Zosterops japonicus japonicus
Lowland White-eye: Zosterops meyeni batanis

Here's my take. Someone with more experience/knowledge can correct me!:

• I believe it's Swinhoe's White-eye. It is by far the most common of the three so a good starting point for comparisons.
• Warbling White-eye is not common but there appear to be records by the coast in multiple areas. Your bird has brightish yellow/green above the beak and on the chin so Warbling White-eye is less likely - usually colouring is a duller more even tone.
• Lowland White-eye is not common - most (or all?) observations are in the southeastern islands (not in the north west mainland where this bird was). I believe it's not easy to distinguish between Swinhoe's and Lowland based on visuals alone but might be possible to distinguish based on vocals. I would feel comfortable ruling out Lowland based on location.

 

[Tangaroa79]

Hi Redpandacat,

Thank you for the information, incredibly useful and interesting. Swinhoe’s White-eye seems the most likely then based on the info you provided so I’ll probably go with that.

Finding birding in this part of the world both challenging and exciting in equal measures 😀

There were taxonomic changes in recent years. It wasn't the simplest mapping and many subspecies were shuffled around.

I think these are the expected species and subspecies:
Swinhoe's White-eye (previously part of Japanese White-eye): Zosterops simplex simplex
Warbling White-eye (previously called Japanese White-eye): Zosterops japonicus japonicus
Lowland White-eye: Zosterops meyeni batanis

Here's my take. Someone with more experience/knowledge can correct me!:

• I believe it's Swinhoe's White-eye. It is by far the most common of the three so a good starting point for comparisons.
• Warbling White-eye is not common but there appear to be records by the coast in multiple areas. Your bird has brightish yellow/green above the beak and on the chin so Warbling White-eye is less likely - usually colouring is a duller more even tone.
• Lowland White-eye is not common - most (or all?) observations are in the southeastern islands (not in the north west mainland where this bird was). I believe it's not easy to distinguish between Swinhoe's and Lowland based on visuals alone but might be possible to distinguish based on vocals. I would feel comfortable ruling out Lowland based on location.

 

[mattystouffer]

Agree with Swinhoe's White-eye, which is far and away the expected species in and around Taipei. Warbling White-eye occurs only at a couple of coastal sites and on outer islands, and there are no Lowland White-eye records on Taiwan proper, only on Lanyu.