Zosterops
Sign in to saveZosterops (meaning "eye-girdle") is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Typical white-eyes have a length of between . Their most characteristic feature is a conspicuous white feather ring around the eye, though some species lack it. The species in this group vary in the structural adaptations of the tongue. The Zosterops [griseotinctus] group is an example of a "great speciator" inhabiting a vas
Taxonomy · GBIF
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderPasseriformes
- FamilyZosteropidae
via GBIF · CC0
Article
4 sectionsContents
- Systematics
- Species
- References
- External links
Zosterops (meaning "eye-girdle") is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Typical white-eyes have a length of between . Their most characteristic feature is a conspicuous white feather ring around the eye, though some species lack it. The species in this group vary in the structural adaptations of the tongue. The Zosterops [griseotinctus] group is an example of a "great speciator" inhabiting a vast area and showing a remarkable morphological differentiation on islands, some of which may be as close as apart.
==Systematics== The genus Zosterops was introduced by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827. The name combines the Ancient Greek words zōstēros "belt" or "girdle" and ōpos "eye". The type species was designated as the Malagasy white-eye by René Lesson in 1828.