Robust White-eyes aka Lord Howe White-eyes or Robust Silvereyes
*Extinct*
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The Robust White-eye (Zosterops strenuus), also known as the Lord Howe White-eye or Robust Silvereye, and locally as the “Big Grinnell“, was a species of bird in the Zosteropidae family.
Distribution
It was endemic to the lowland forests of Lord Howe Island, east of Australia.
Description
It was a mainly green bird, around 7.6 cm long, with a white belly and yellow throat, which separated it from other species of white-eye.
Breeding / Nesting
The Robust White-eye built loosely-constructed, cup-shaped nests out of palm fibre and dried grasses, which were sometimes found in shrubs overgrown with vines.
Extinction
Sadly this made the species vulnerable to predation by Black Rats (Rattus rattus), which were accidentally introduced in 1918 following the grounding of the steamship SS Makambo on the island. Although once common, the bird was extinct by 1923.
Despite its small size, the bird was known to islanders as “Big Grinnell”, to differentiate it from the much smaller but related “Little Grinnell”, or Lord Howe Silvereye Zosterops lateralis tephropleurus, a subspecies of the Silvereye. This subspecies hangs on, but is threatened with extinction.
References
- Day, David (1981), The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species, London, Universal Books Ltd, pp109–110, ISBN 0-947889-30-2
- BirdLife International 2004. Zosteropsstrenuus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 27 July 2007.
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