Zosterops lateralis
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The silvereye or wax-eye (Zosterops lateralis), also known by its Māori name tauhou, is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all members of the genus Zosterops, or the entire family Zosteropidae.
In New Zealand, the silvereye was first recorded in 1832. It arrived in greater numbers in 1856, and it is assumed that a migrating flock was swept eastwards by a storm. As an apparently self-introduced bird it is protected as a native New Zealand species. Its Māori name, tauhou, means "stranger" or more literally, "new arrival".
The silvereye was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Sylvia lateralis. Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taronga Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Auckland Zoo | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 3 | Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Edward Youde Aviary | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China |
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Silvereye sighting in Arthur's Pass National Park on a given day, based on 863 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 9th most-seen of the 48 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 90% of wildlife watchers report a Silvereye in Arthur's Pass National Park on a given day, against about 40% in October, the lowest month.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Silvereye sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Silvereye sightings, Arthur's Pass National Park ranks 4th at about 70%. The best odds are in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (New Zealand, about 80%), Egmont National Park (New Zealand, about 70%) and Flinders Chase (Australia, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Silvereye that you can see in Arthur's Pass National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are New Zealand Bellbird (about 90%), Miromiro (about 90%) and Grey Warbler (about 90%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Silvereye is recorded against all the birds logged in Arthur's Pass National Park (863 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
