Food
Mainly fruit. Sometimes seeds, nectar or insects.
Voice
Song is a thin, high-pitched or loud 'yerr yerr weet yerr yerr yerr tyert weet ..'. A short, high-pitched twitter uttered in contact. A loud, agitated 'tsirr... tsir' in alarm. Seldom heard.
Christmas White-eye (Zosterops natalis) [XC69781]
by Frank Lambert from Christmas Island, Australia (call)
Christmas White-eye (Zosterops natalis) [XC69782]
by id from Christmas Island, Australia (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
November - February on Christmas Island.
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Nest
Cup-shaped, composed dry grass and other coarse plant material, occasionally some feathers or dry leaves, lined with dry palm fibers, suspended by the rim and firmly attached to a fork of a thin branch of a shrub or tree, and occasionally high up in tall trees.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 3; lustreless, blue-green; oval; 17.5 x 12.5 mm. Incubation: 15 - 16 days.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 17 days.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Resembles Annobon White-eye (Zosterops griseovirescens) of Gulf of Guinea (western Africa) in appearance.
Similar Species
Vagrant Arctic Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) are possible.
On Christmas and Cocos - Keeling islands, none. They are the only white-eye present.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet