• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Range map
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Taxonomic note
Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus has been split into Indian White-eye Z. palpebrosus, Hume's White-eye Z. auriventer and Sangkar White-eye Z. melanurus on the basis of thorough morphological comparisons (Wells et al. 2017a, b) and genetic differentiation, morphology and vocalisations (Round et al. 2017, Lim et al. 2019).

Z. p. unicus has been transferred to Ashy-bellied White-eye Z. citrinella, and Z. p. wiliamsoni has been transferred to Swinhoe's White-eye Z. simplex (Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International 2019) following genetic analysis by Lim et al. (2019).

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2019. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 4. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v4_Dec19.zip.
Lim, B.T., Sadanandan, K.R., Dingle, C., Leung, Y.Y., Prawiradilaga, D.M., Irham, M., Ashari, H., Lee, J.G. & Rheindt, F.E. 2019. Molecular evidence suggests radical revision of species limits in the great speciator white-eye genus Zosterops. Journal of Ornithology 160(1): 1-16.
Round, P. D., Manawattana, S., Khudamrongsawat, J., Thunhikorn, S., Safoowong, M., & Bhummakasikara, T. 2017. Disentangling avian diversity: South-East Asian mainland Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus constitutes two distinct lineages. Forktail 33: 103-115.
Wells, D.R. 2017a. Zosterops white-eyes in continental South-East Asia. 1: proposed refinements to the regional definition of Oriental White-eye Z. palpebrosus. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 137(2): 100-110.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2019	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	unset	Forest dependency	unset
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	14,700,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-

Population justification: There is no population size data available for this species, however based on the range size the population is thought to be very large.

Trend justification: Despite a lack of evidence, the species is precautionarily assessed as decreasing due to the trapping and trade of the species for the cage-bird market.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native	yes
Bangladesh	extant	native	yes
Bhutan	extant	native	yes
Cambodia	extant	native	yes
China (mainland)	extant	native	yes
India	extant	native	yes
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes
Laos	extant	native	yes
Myanmar	extant	native	yes
Nepal	extant	native	yes
Oman	extant	uncertain
Pakistan	extant	native	yes
Sri Lanka	extant	native	yes
Thailand	extant	native	yes
Vietnam	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Moist	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 4000 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	national, international

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Indian White-eye Zosterops palpebrosus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/indian-white-eye-zosterops-palpebrosus on 15/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 15/01/2025.