Africa Wild

622. Layard's Tit-babbler Silvia layardi Grystjeriktik


Description
13cm; 31g
Sexes are similar. Paler above than Chestnut-vented Tit-babbler. White vent is diagnostic. Whitish eyes and streaked upper breast and throat are the most useful field characters. Female is slightly more buffyish. Juvenile is slate-brown above, more buffy below, greyish throat without streaking.

The Layard's warbler or Layard's tit-babbler (Sylvia layardi) is a species of Old World warbler in the family Sylviidae. It is found in Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

Distribution
Endemic to southern Africa, occurring from western Namibia to South Africa.



Habitat
It is generally common, preferring shrubland in mountainous areas and arid fynbos, occasionally moving into gardens in rural villages in the Karoo.

Diet
It mainly eats invertebrates gleaned from the leaves and branches of low shrubs, supplemented with fruit.

Breeding
The nest is a small cup built of grass and silky fibres from the bark of Asclepias buchenaviana (Lammerlat), secured together with spider web, with thicker walls than the nest of the Chestnut-vented tit-babbler. It is typically placed in a fork near the base of a bush, often in Rhizogum obovatum (Simple-leaved rhizogum) in the southern Nama Karoo.
Egg-laying season is from March-December, from September to November.
It lays 2-3 eggs, which are probably incubated for 13-15 days.
Both adults care for the young, who leave the nest after roughly 15 days.

Call
More mellow and less sustained than Chestnust-vented Tit-babbler, chr peetu-peetu-peetu and variations thereof.

Status
Locally common endemic.

622. Layard's Tit-babbler Silvia layardi


© Nan
The Karoo

The white-eyes are small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. They are traditionally placed in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae.
White-eyes are mostly of undistinguished appearance, the plumage being generally greenish olive above, and pale grey below. Some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. As their common name implies, many species have a conspicuous ring of tiny white feathers around their eyes. They have rounded wings and strong legs. Like many other nectivorous birds, they have slender, pointed bills, and brush-tipped tongues. The size ranges up to 15 cm in length. All the species of white-eyes are sociable, forming large flocks which only separate on the approach of the breeding season. They build tree nests and lay 2-4 unspotted pale blue eggs. Though mainly insectivorous, they eat nectar and fruits of various kinds.

The genus Zosterops contains the typical white-eyes. This genus has the highest number of species among the white-eyes by far. They occur in the Afrotropic ecoregion, the Indomalaya zone, and the Australasia ecozone.

Family Zosteropidae (White-eyes)
Zosterops virens Cape White-eye 796
Zosterops pallidus Orange River White-eye
Zosterops anderssoni Southern Yellow White-eye 797

796. Cape White-eye Zosterops virens (Kaapse Glasogie)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Zosteropidae


Description
12 cm. This bird has a conspicuous ring of white feathers round the eye. The upperparts are green, the throat and vent are bright yellow, the breast and belly grey. Sexes alike.
Adult: Forehead and supraloral stripe yellow. Blackish line from base of bill across lores broadens around lower front margin of eye ring. Remainder of upper parts olive green, cheeks streaked with yellow. Tail blackish brown, rectrices with narrow green margins. Flight feathers blackish brown. Primaries narrowly edged green, secondaries and tertials more broadly edged green; alula blackish brown. Primary coverts blackish brown, edged green; lesser and median coverts olive green. Chin and throat yellow. Upper breast and flanks olive green, centre of breast, and belly, thighs and undertail coverts yellow, tinged green. Bill blackish brown, base of lower mandible greyer; short, warbler-like. Eyes dark brown to grey-brown; eye ring white, narrow (1-2 mm wide). Legs and feet brownish grey to blue-grey.
Juvenile is duller than adult.
Its colouring varies locally, from a greenish colour in Natal and the Cape to a more yellowish colour in the Transvaal highveld. Cape White-eyes occur in two colour forms, with grey-bellied birds present in the Western Cape, extending eastwards along the coastal areas and inland into the Eastern Cape, to about the Buffalo River near East London, from where the yellowish-/green-bellied birds are found. These birds occur along the eastern seaboard north-eastwards from the Eastern Cape into KwaZulu-Natal and also extend inland into the interior into Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West and Limpopo Provinces. Grey-bellied birds also extend into the southern Free State and along the Caledon River northwards in the eastern Free State, sometimes as far north as Harrismith; they are also found in Lesotho. Yellowish-/green-bellied birds predominate in the north-eastern Free State and may be found as far south as Ficksburg and Ladybrand, sometimes even occurring near Thaba Nchu, between Ladybrand and Bloemfontein.
Similar species: Distinguished from Yellow White-eye by its greyish underparts and green (not yellow) upperparts. However, birds in Mpumalanga have pale green, almost yellow backs; here, only the greyish green vent and greenish (not yellow) head differentiate this species from the Yellow White-eye. The Cape White-eye lacks the obvious buff sides to the flanks and the breast of the Orange River White-eye.
Birds in e Botswana and north-eastern highveld best identified by yellow (not olive-green) forehead and crown, and yellow (not greenish yellow) vent.



Taxonomy
Traditionally, the western nominate group and the eastern capensis group have been treated as separate species; the Orange River White-eye (Z. pallidus) and the Cape White-eye (Z. capensis). The latter can be further divided into two subgroups, the south-western capensis subgroup and the eastern virens subgroup (the so-called Green White-eye). All subspecies interbreed where they come into contact (including members of the nominate group with members of the capensis group of both subgroups in Free State). Some authorities (e.g. I O C) maintain the Cape and Orange River White-eyes as separate species.
The members of the capensis subgroup have a grey breast and belly, while the virens subgroup have a greenish-yellow breast and belly.
Z. c. caniviridis: Eastern Botswana to North-West Province and Limpopo Province. Greenish-yellow breast and belly
Z. c. atmorii: Inland Eastern Cape to Free State Province and Lesotho. Grey breast and belly
Z. c. capensis: Winter rainfall region of the Western Cape Province. Grey breast and belly
Z. c. virens: SW Mozambique to Swaziland and e Cape Province

Distribution
Near-endemic to South-Africa, occurring across much of the country, excluding the Kalahari Desert and extending into south-eastern Botswana.

Habitat
Forests, woodlands, savanna, exotic plantations and suburban gardens.

Diet
The Cape White-eye feeds mainly on insects, but also soft fleshy flowers, nectar, fruit and small grains. It readily comes to bird feeders. It eats a variety of invertebrates (especially aphids), fruit and nectar, foraging in pairs or small parties year-round. It mainly gleans prey from leaves and branches, occasionally plucking an insect from the air or ground.

Breeding
The breeding season is from September to December. Both sexes construct the nest in about 5 to 9 days. It is a small cup built of materials collected near the nest site. The nest is typically concealed in the foliage of a tree or bush, slung between a few branches and well hidden. The egg-laying season peaks from October to December. Two or four unspotted pale blue eggs are laid and incubated by both sexes. The eggs hatch between 11 and 13 days and the young fledge in another 12 to13 days. Both parents brood and feed the chicks that remain in the foliage surrounding the nest for some time. During this period they are very vulnerable to predator attacks.

Call
They are very vocal. The song consists of repeated long jerky phrases of sweet reedy notes, varying in pitch, volume and temp, usually starting off with teee teee or pirrup pirrup notes, then becoming a fast rambled jumble of notes, which may incorporate mimicked phrases of other birdcalls. Soft tweee-tuuu-twee-twee. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Endemic. Common resident.


Eastern form with green wash

796. Cape White-eye Zosterops virens

© Amoli

© Amoli
With grey breast and belly

© okie
Zosterops virens capensis, Worcester, Western Cape

© nan
Agulhas National Park

© Tina
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
ID Guide for the Orange river and Cape white-eyes

796. Orange River White-eye Zosterops pallidus (Gariepglasogie)
Order: Passeriformes. Family: Zosteropidae


Description
Size 12 cm. The sexes are alike, with greenish crown and upperparts; yellow throat; peach coloured or buff flanks and yellow vent. It has a very distinct white ring around its black eyes, a black bill and black legs and feet.
Similar species: Differs from Cape White-eye by having a very obvious peachy buff wash across the sides of the breast and flanks that contrasts with yellow throat and vent. Range does not overlap with that of Southern Yellow White-eye.
The key plumage features to assist in the identification of Orange River White-eyes are:
1. Pale colour of chest and belly merging with yellow throat and olive-green head
2. Cinnamon/buffy flanks
3. Male and female Orange River White-eyes are distinctly different in “fresh”, recently moulted plumage (males are more brightly coloured than duller/paler females)

Distribution: The Orange River White-eye is endemic to the southern African region and is found, not surprisingly, along the Orange River, but also northwards into Namibia, where they are not uncommon along the Swakop and Kuiseb Rivers, and southwards into South Africa. It is very similar to the Cape White-eye in appearance and some hybridization occurs where the ranges of the two overlap.

Habitat
Arid to semi-arid scrub, dry river beds and riverine woodland and reed beds. This species is commonly found along wooded watercourses in dry western parts of its range.

Diet
It feeds mainly on insects which it gleans from leaves or prises from under the bark as it moves quickly through the foliage, and on fruit and berries.

Breeding
They are monogamous and build a cup-shaped nest, usually placed in a tree or a tall bush. The female lays a clutch of about three pale blue eggs, usually in the month's between October and March.

Call
Higher pitched and more trilling than Cape White-eye, a subdued pee, tee, pee, tee. Listen to Bird call.

Statuts
Locally common endemic.


Augrabies NP

796. Orange River White-eye Zosterops pallidus (Gariepglasogie)

© Michele Nel

© Michele Nel
Amanzi River Camp on the Orange River, Namibia

© Michele Nel
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Twe Rivieren Camp - June 2009

Links:
Sabap2
Species Text Southern African Bird Atlas Project

797. Southern Yellow White-eye Zosterops anderssoni (Geelglasogie)
Order Passeriformes. Family Zosteropidae


Description
Length 11-12 cm. Bill warblerlike; similar to Cape White-eye, but much yellower all over; above greenish yellow (Cape White-eye much greener, often tinged greyish); below bright yellow, faintly washed green across breast (Cape White-eye grey, whitish or greenish yellow, flanks darker, sometimes washed rufous); eyering white. Iris brown; bill black, base blue-grey; legs and feet blue-grey.
Juvenile: Paler below than adult.

Distribution:
Z. a. anderssoni: e and s Angola and n Namibia to sw Tanzania, w Mozambique and n South Africa
Z. a. tongensis: se Zimbabwe, s Mozambique and ne South Africa
Z. a. stierlingi: e and s Tanzania, e Zambia, Malawi and n Mozambique

Habitat
It generally prefers well-wooded habitats, especially miombo (Brachystegia), Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga) and mohobohobo (Uapaca) woodland, also occupying swamps with interspersed trees, thorny scrub, Eucalyptus plantations, suburban parks and gardens.

Diet
It mainly eats insects, doing most of its foraging in the tree canopy, gleaning prey from leaves and branches. It regularly joins mixed-species foraging flocks.

Breeding
The nest is a small cup built of dried grass and small twigs, secured with spider web. It is typically placed in the foliage of a sapling, often about 3-5 m above ground in the shade. Egg-laying season is from August-January, peaking from September-October. It lays 2-4 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for about 11-12 days.
The chicks are cared for by both parents, leaving the nest after about 13-14 days. If the nest is disturbed the chicks will often jump out in a panic.

Call
Song melodious whistled warble, similar to song of Cape White-eye or Willow Warbler, tsee-tseer-tsi-tsi-tseer-tsi-tsi-tsi-tseer-tsee, followed by pause before next phrase; soft piping and twittering contact calls, rather tinny.

Statuts
Common resident.

© Toko
Tembe Elephant Park, KwaZulu-Natal

797. African Yellow White-eye Zosterops anderssoni



© Toko
Tembe Elephant Park

Links:
Sabap2
Species Text Southern African Bird Atlas Project