Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Population justification
There is no quantitative population size data available for this species, however it is considered locally fairly common in forest habitat on the Thai-Malay peninsula, although scarcer in Sabah (Eaton et al. 2016).
Trend justification
There has been significant forest loss across the range of the species; however, the rate of loss is relatively slow in higher elevations at which Hume's White-eye is found. This, as well as the species's ability to tolerate converted habitats, suggests that the rate of decline is thought to be slow.
There are four subspecies within Zosterops auriventer. These are: auriventer, medius, wetmorei and tahanensis. Subspecies auriventer occurs in Myanmar, subspecies medius occurs on Borneo (Indonesia), subspecies wetmorei occurs in Thailand and the northern Thai-Malay peninsula, and subspecies tahanensis occurs on the southern Thai-Malay peninsula (Wells 2017, van Balen 2019).
Zosterops auriventer occupies low thick brush, evergreen forest and forest edge on mountain slopes, as well as secondary growth, scrub and cocoa plantations. The species also occupies the remnants of upper hill Malaysian dipterocarp forest mixed with secondary growth around villages, and at the edges of clearings for cultivation, for example for hill rice, Albizia and cocoa. In Thailand, it can be found from the foothills to 1,800 m, and up to 2,000 m on Peninsular Malaysia. In Borneo, the species is a submontane resident, living between 130 and 1,700 m, although mainly occupying forest between 200 and 1,100 m. It is common between 1,450 and 1,700 m on Mt Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo (van Balen 2019).
This species is threatened by ongoing deforestation in its range, as well as by trapping for the cage-bird trade.
Conservation Actions Underway
There are no targeted conservation actions known for this species.
Conservation Actions Proposed
Monitor the rate of population decline and investigate the extent of trapping and trade of this species.
Text account compilers
Elliott, N., Martin, R.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Hume's White-eye Zosterops auriventer. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/humes-white-eye-zosterops-auriventer on 27/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 27/11/2024.