White-chested white-eye

Extinct in recent times

The White-chested white-eye was native only to a forest area of five square kilometers at Mount Pitt on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island lies east of Australia and north of New Zealand. Experts assume the bird species went extinct in recent times. The last confirmed sighting of a White-chested white-eye was in late 2005, and a three-week search in 2009 was unsuccessful, according to ornithologist and search leader Guy Dutson in 2010 in an article in Australian Geographic. Dutson estimates there is a 90 percent chance the species is extinct.

The conservation organization IUCN still lists the bird as ‘Critically Endangered’, but writes that if the White-chested white-eye still exists, the population would likely consist of fewer than 50 birds. The Australian government’s Department of the Environment and Energy, meanwhile, already lists the White-chested white-eye as ‘Extinct’.

Since around 1800, several endemic bird species on Norfolk Island have gone extinct: for example the Norfolk thrush (Turdus poliocephalus poliocephalus), the Norfolk boobook (Ninox novaezelandeae undulata), the Tasman starling (Aplonis fusca), or the Norfolk ground dove.

White-chested white-eye – Fact Sheet

alternative names	White-breasted white-eye, White-breasted silvereye, Norfolk white-eye
scientific name	Zosterops albogularis
original range	Norfolk Island (Pacific Ocean)
time of extinction	no earlier than 2006
causes of extinction	habitat loss, introduced animals on the island, climatic changes
IUCN status	extinct

Declining population numbers since the beginning of the 20th century

The causes of the extinction of the White-chested white-eye were, on the one hand, the destruction of its habitat and, on the other, animal species introduced to the island.

The history of this species’ decline began in 1904, when the silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) became established on Norfolk Island. This bird is considered a species that immigrated even into New Zealand. Scientists assume that in the mid-19th century a flock was blown across the Tasman Sea toward New Zealand by a storm.

While the White-chested and silvereye are related members of the songbird family Zosteropidae, coexistence was difficult. The newly arrived species displaced the endemic species, the White-chested white-eye, from its breeding areas and competed with it for food.

But it was not only the silvereye that made life difficult for the White-chested white-eye as a newly arrived species; black rats (Rattus rattus) introduced from the mid-1940s onward, which occurred preferentially on the slopes of Mount Pitt, also robbed the nests of White-chested white-eyes.

In addition to pressure from other animal species, habitat destruction played a major role. Thus a large part of the primary forest on Norfolk Island was cleared, and a variety of exotic plants became established. According to the IUCN, the preferred habitat of the White-chested white-eye shrank in this way to only one percent of the original range.

The conservation organization also mentions the establishment of feral domestic cats as well as periods of drought. Experts estimate that the White-chested white-eye was sensitive to climatic changes. In 1962, a scientific study could document only 50 White-chested white-eyes; in 1978 four individuals and in 2000 one individual.

White-chested white-eye: One of the largest among small birds

With a body length of around 14 centimeters and a weight of 30 grams, the White-chested white-eye was an unusually large small bird. A special feature of this species was that it had one of the shortest breeding phases in the bird world, according to zoologist Markus Kappeler in an article about the Norfolk white-eye. It took only eleven days for the young to hatch; another eleven days later they were already fledged and could leave the nest. Unlike other white-eyes, the Norfolk white-eye was not social outside the breeding season, but lived a solitary life.

The White-chested white-eye got its common name because of its white belly and throat area. It also had a clearly visible white ring around the eyes. Its head was light green, and the nape olive green.