white-eye (South Africa) (1 Viewer)

[pietrod]

Pictures (bad) taken at St. Lucia in N-E South Africa where both african yellow and cape white-eye occur. The latter occurs with the ssp. virens.
Looking at pics on-line and reading guides I cannot find a definite feature to distinguish the 2.

Any help?

Pictures from jan the 7th 2019, birds high in the canopy, no call heard.

Thanks a lot

 

[Andy Hurley]

I think they are Cape Z. c. caniviridis, because the African Yellow has a yellow frons (Stirn) and the whole underside is bright yellow. The lower bird in #1 is sitting in bright light, but in #3 the lower bird has only a lighter throat (I can't see the vent clearly). In #2 the frontal view of the frons confirms the id for me

 

[pietrod]

Hi Andy,

Thanks a lot for your insights.

I want to specify that the bird in the light is always the same.

My initial thought was also Cape white eye but then looking at pics on-line (see below) you can see that the belly is not always so bright and there is often some contrast with flanks and throat so I was looking for some extra features to base the ID.

https://www.hbw.com/ibc/photo/african-yellow-white-eye-zosterops-senegalensis/seen-well-maweni-farm

http://www.pers-birding-pages.com/www.pers-birding-pages.com/African_Yellow_White-eye.html

 

[Andy Hurley]

If you look at the ranges as well as just the photo you will see that most of your linked birds cannot be Cape White-eye on range alone. Cape White-eye is a Southern African endemic. African Yellow has many subspecies, of which only 2 occur is South Africa. This Opus page shows all the subspecies and their range. The first link show a Tanzanian bird of subspecies jacksonii. The second link shows a fewbirds from Tanzania, with only one ZA bird that shows its belly. Look at its frons and you can see that it is yellow. The final bird doesn't present its belly to the viewer.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Can't comment on the id (I found the white-eyes very puzzling in those corners of South Africa where I figured both were possible), but note there have just been heaps of white-eye splits (IOC), with the African Yellow White-eyes occuring in SA now being within Southern Yellow White-eye.

 

[pietrod]

Thanks Larry for the heads-up!

Thanks Andy for your knowledge. Just to be sure I understand you correctly. The ssp of Africa Yellow white eye (now Southern yellow white eye) present in St. Lucia South Africa would be very brightly uniformly yellow on the belly. Therefore, the birds I saw were Cape white eye. Am I correct?

Cheers

 

[Andy Hurley]

Thats my take

 

[Andy Hurley]

Can't comment on the id (I found the white-eyes very puzzling in those corners of South Africa where I figured both were possible), but note there have just been heaps of white-eye splits (IOC), with the African Yellow White-eyes occuring in SA now being within Southern Yellow White-eye.

Thanks for that Larry, I'll have to follow that up. Armchair tick? Possibly, but I'm returning to that corner of the world in June, so possibly a propper tick too.