Habits
Occasionally singly or in pairs but most often in small flocks, sometimes large flocks especially in passge.
Food
Fruits and insects. Also nectar, other invertebrates, food scraps, flowers and seeds.
Voice
A thin peevish 'psee'. Alarm call is a wavering 'wee-ee-ee-ee-ee'. Territorial call a rapid succession of high-pitched notes, trills and warbles. A 'chip chip' often heard in flight.
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) [XC821562]
by Sreekar from Taiko Camp, Chatham Island, New Zealand (call)
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) [XC674040]
by Richard Fuller from Ida Bay, Huon Valley Council, Tasmania, Australia (call, song)
Nest
Small, neat, cup-shaped, composed of fine grasses, horse-hair and other soft materials, bound with cobweb, suspended in the fork of a bush or sapling, usualy within 5 m of the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
2 - 4, usually 3; plain blue or blue-green; oval to tapered-oval; about 17 x 13 mm. Incubation: about 10 - 13 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 9 - 12 days.
Subspecies
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) and Lord Howe Island White-eye (Zosterops tephropleurus) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Zosterops lateralis following Christidis and Boles (1994).
Proposed subspecies macmillani (from Tanna, in southern Vanuatu) is considered synonymous with vatensis.
The following 17 subspecies are recognised:
chloronotus Gould, 1841 - South-western and southern western Australia (southern from Point Cloates and Shark Bay, and from Wongan Hills) eastern (southern of Nullarbor Plain) to southern South Australia. Previuosly known as gouldi.
vegetus Hartert, 1899 - North-eastern Queensland (eastern Cape York Peninsula) in north-eastern Australia.
cornwalli Mathews, 1912 - East-central and south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales.
chlorocephalus Campbell, AJ & White, SA, 1910 - Capricorn Group (notably Heron I) and Bunker Group, in southern Great Barrier Reef, off south-eastern Queensland.
westernensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832) - South-eastern New South Wales (from upper Lachlan R) south to eastern Victoria.
pinarochrous Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - South-eastern South Australia, south-western New South Wales and western Victoria.
tephropleurus Gould, 1855 - Lord Howe I. (off New Zealand). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Lord Howe Island White-eye (Zosterops tephropleurus).
ochrochrous Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - King I (western Bass Strait).
lateralis (Latham, 1801) - Flinders I (Furneaux Group, in eastern Bass Strait), Tasmania, Norfolk I, New Zealand (both main islands, all smaller adjacent islands) and Chatham Is. Non-breeding also south-eastern Australia.
valuensis Murphy & Mathews, 1929 - Mota Lava, in eastern Banks Is (in extreme north-eastern Vanuatu).
tropicus Mees, 1969 - Torres Is, Banks Is (except Mota Lava) and north-western Vanuatu (Malo, Espíritu Santo).
nigrescens Sarasin, 1913 - Beautemps Beaupré, Ouvéa and Maré, in Loyalty Is.
melanops Gray, GR, 1860 - Lifou, in central Loyalty Is.
flaviceps Peale, 1849 - Fiji Is (main islands and all adjacent smaller islands from Vanua Levu and Taveuni south to Viti Levu and Kadavu. Also Koro, Gau and Moala).
macmillani Mayr, 1937 - Vanuatu (Tanna and Aniwa islands).
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