Zosterops japonicus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The warbling white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. The specific epithet is occasionally written japonica, but this is incorrect due to the gender of the genus. Its native range includes much of East Asia, including the Russian Far East, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines. It has been intentionally introduced to other parts of the world as a pet and as pest control, with mixed results. As one of the native species of the Japanese islands, it has been depicted in Japanese art on numerous occasions, and historically was kept as a cage bird.
The warbling white-eye was described by the ornithologists Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel in 1847 from a specimen collected in Japan. They coined the binomial name Zosterops japonicus. The English name "Japanese white-eye" was formerly used for Zosterops japonicus and what are now the Philippine subspecies of Z. japonicus were treated as a separate species, the "mountain white-eye" Z. montanus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that Z. montanus and several subspecies of Z. japonicus were conspecific, and they were therefore lumped together. They... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sedgwick County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Ueno Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 3 | Inokashira Park Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 4 | Ueno Zoological Gardens (West Garden) | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 5 | Butterfly World | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye sighting in Tokyo on a given day, based on 12,439 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 13th most-seen of the 229 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to February
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye in Tokyo on a given day, against about 20% in August, the lowest month. Those are among Tokyo's driest months, with about 80 mm of rain a month against 250 mm in October.
Between midnight and 3 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Warbling White-eye sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
6th of 12
Of the 12 cities where we can rate Warbling White-eye sightings, Tokyo ranks 6th at about 50%. The best odds are in Fukuoka (Japan, about 60%), Busan (South Korea, about 60%) and Naha (Japan, about 60%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Warbling White-eye that you can see in Tokyo (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Brown-eared Bulbul (about 90%), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (about 80%) and Large-billed Crow (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Warbling White-eye is recorded against all the birds logged in Tokyo (12,439 verified sightings), 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.
