Cape white-eye
species of bird
The Cape white-eye (Zosterops virens) is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. It is native to southern Africa. It is commonly found in suburbia, parks and gardens, besides a variety of mesic to well-watered habitats.
Taxonomy
There are two subspecies:
Z. v. capensis Sundevall, 1850 – south-western South Africa, Lesotho and adjacent western KwaZulu-Natal.
Z. v. virens Sundevall, 1850 – eastern and south-eastern Botswana, eastern and northern South Africa, Eswatini, and adjacent south-western Mozambique.
These subspecies interbreed where they come into contact.
The Orange River white-eye (Z. pallidus) has been split from the Cape white-eye.
Identification
This species is about 12 cm long with rounded wings, strong legs, and a conspicuous ring of white feathers round the eyes.
The public source identifies “Cape white-eye” as species of bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cape, white-eye and species.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q12269418. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1850.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cape white-eye” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.