Zosterops japonicus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 100 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 38th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Warbling White-eye in Nikko National Park on a given day, against about 10% in March, June and November–January, the lowest months.
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.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Warbling White-eye sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Warbling White-eye that you can see in Nikko National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Cinereous Tit (about 80%), Japanese Bush Warbler (about 70%) and Coal Tit (about 60%), 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 Nikko National Park (100 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.
