Zosterops poliogastrus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Ethiopian white-eye (Zosterops poliogastrus), formerly known as Heuglin's white-eye or montane white-eye, is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. It is native to the Ethiopian Highlands. Its natural habitats range from subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, to subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, plantations, and rural gardens.
The Ethiopian white-eye was formally described and illustrated in 1861 by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin based on specimens collected in the "high mountainous district of Abbyssinia". He placed it in the genus Zosterops and coined the binomial name Zosterops poliogastra. As Zosterops is masculine, this must be corrected to Zosterops poliogastrus. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ζωστηρος/zōstēros meaning "belt" or "girdle" with ωπος/ōpos meaning "eye". The specific epithet poliogastrus combines the Ancient Greek πολιος/polios meaning "grey" with γαστηρ/gastēr, γαστρος/gastros meaning "belly".
The Ethiopian white-eye was formerly treated as a polytypic species with the English name "montane white-eye" or "broad-ringed white-eye". Based mainly of evidence from molecular... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's White-eye sighting in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 33 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 57th most-seen of the 117 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's White-eye in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February, April–June, August and December, the lowest months. March and September have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Heuglin's White-eye sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Bale Mountains National Park, in our data
Bale Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Heuglin's White-eye sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Heuglin's White-eye that you can see in Bale Mountains National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Moorland Chat (about 80%), Abyssinian Siskin (about 70%) and Ethiopian Cisticola (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Heuglin's White-eye is recorded against all the birds logged in Bale Mountains National Park (33 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.
