Warbling White-eye

Warbling White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) is a tiny olive-green bird with yellow throat, pale underparts and a bold ring of white feathers around each eye. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is native across much of East Asia, travels in active flocks through forests, gardens and towns and feeds on insects, nectar and fruit while giving frequent musical calls. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).