Whenever that sweet tinkling sound traverses through my balcony, my entire mood rejuvenates. I crane my neck, investigating its source, and scan my lushy green enclave for a soft jingling song. Tracing the tsee…tseer… notes, I rejoice with delight on spotting the chirpy, cute, bundle of joy— the Indian White-Eye. Do you think the White-Eye is called so because it wears white spectacles? If yes, then you are absolutely correct! A ring of white feather around its eyes has earned this birdie its English title. In fact, it was originally named the ‘Oriental White-eye’ but later coined the ‘Indian White-eye,’ for geographical specificity. So quintessential is this chalky-white circle that even the species’ scientific name refers to this identification mark. Zosterops palpebrosus: where ‘Zosterops’ means ‘girdle eyes’ in Greek and ‘palpebrosus’ means ‘prominent eyelids’ in Latin.
This sober acrobat displays yellowish olive-green upper body and greyish-white undersides. This contrasts with its bright yellow throat and vent, and its black curved bill. With short wings and squarish tail, it slenderly migrates in local areas—forests, orchards, and groves.
Diligently sucking the flower nectar and gulping down the pulpy berries, the White-Eyes are crucial pollinators. No wonder they celebrate a flower feast in my garden, not just in ones or twos but it in whole large groups! Primarily insectivorous, these White- Eyes are very sociable and enjoy living collectively. Their husband-wife pair are also alike.
One day, my daughter spot a White-Eye couple in our neighbourhood. The duet was busy gathering some nesting materials. By the time we traced their construction site, the pair had already weaved a beautiful cup-nest using cobwebs, cotton, soft feathers, and plant fibers. Innocent, my baby daughter demanded, “I wanna stay there. Can I fit myself into it?”
After a few days, we noticed three beautiful pale-blue eggs resting inside this new abode. We observed a parent ferrying food for the chicks, so we remained aloof to avoid any disturbance. In fact, a greater threat to them is habitat degradation, declining fruit trees, and rise in predators and robust species, i.e., those who are more adapted to their environment.
Sometime later, the nest remained intact but its residents had abandoned it; probably, the fledglings had taken their flight. Howsoever tiny the White-Eye, it did give a thought to my doll and I. Till now, my princess is comforted in a world her parents built for her, but in a few years, she too will have to take her flight and explore the wide world outside.
(Photo credits: Athiya Mahapatra)
(This was first published in the 1-28 February 2022 edition of the Gobar Times.)
An amateur ornithologist and closely follows the avian world.