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...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii Volcanoes National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Haleakala National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| # | 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 60% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye sighting in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 552 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 9th most-seen of the 44 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.
October and December
In those months about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 50% in April, the lowest month.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Warbling 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.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Warbling White-eye sightings, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge ranks 3rd at about 60%. The best odds are in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (United States, about 90%) and Haleakala National Park (United States, about 80%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Warbling White-eye that you can see in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Brazilian Cardinal (about 70%), Northern Cardinal (about 50%) and White-rumped Shama (about 50%), 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 Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge (552 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.
