Animalia Life

Zosterops modestus
TAXONOMY
Zosterops modestus Newton, 1867, Mahй, Seychelles. Monotypic.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Seychelles white-eye, Seychelles brown white-eye; French: Zostйrops des Seychelles, German: Mahйbrillenvogel; Spanish: Ojiblanco de Seychelles.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Length 3.9 in (10 cm). A dull olive-gray bird with obscure eye-ring.
DISTRIBUTION
Mahй and Conception Islands of Seychelles.
HABITAT
Mixed secondary forest between 1,000 and 2,000 ft (300–600 m), confined to about 2 mi2 (5 km2) on Mahй.
BEHAVIOR
Very active in small flocks, giving contact calls frequently.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Feed on small insects and berries among shrubs, and search bark crevices of trees for arthropod prey.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Nests in Oct–Nov and Feb–Mar at start and end of monsoon season. Clutch size is two.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Critically Endangered. Fewer than 100 left on Mahй but common on the small island of Conception.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Has the conservation value of being the only species of whiteeye left on Seychelles, as the Seychelles yellow white-eye, the Seychelles race of the chestnut-sided white-eye, Z. mayottensis semiflavus, on Marianne is extinct since about 1890.

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