Silvereye

Zosterops lateralis

Other Names: Silvereye (Grey Backed)
Family: Zosteropidae (White-eyes, 3 species in Australia)
Size: 12 cm
Distribution: Around the coasts of Australia, mainly in the Southeast, up to several hundred km inland in the Southeast.
Status: Common
Habitat: All types, orchards, gardens, everywhere really
References: Simpson and Day, Reader's Digest

Silvereyes are usually seen in numbers of at least 10 birds and sometimes a lot more. Like most small birds they do not stay in the one place very long. They are lovely birds and I always feel happy when I see them.

Silvereye - Zosterops lateralis
Photo: Blaxland, Blue Mountains NSW

The photo below shows two Silvereyes playing in the birdbath with a male Superb Fairy Wren.

Silvereye - Zosterops lateralis
Photo: Blaxland, Blue Mountains NSW

Silvereye - Zosterops lateralis
Artwork: John Gould, 'The Birds of Australia', 1848. Original Scanned Image.

Some Birdwatching Resources

Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, Peter Slater, Pat Slater and Raoul Slater. This is a smaller field guide, and its advantage is it is easy to carry around. Its size is 21.3 x 11.4 x 2.8 centimetres, or 8.4 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches in the old scale. So it is a good one to get if you want to have your field guide with you out in the field. Unlike most of the field guides it also has illustrations of the eggs of all the birds that breed in Australia. It has very good reviews on Amazon.

Click here to Purchase from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

Click here to purchase from Australia (The Nile) $28.45 AUD (May be unavailable)

Click here to purchase from Australia (Fishpond) May be expensive.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Nicolas Day, Ken Simpson, Peter Trusler.This is known to birdwatchers as "Simpson and Day". I like the pictures in this one the best out of all the major field guides. The information is still very highly regarded compared to most of the other guides. Many serious birdwatchers think "Pizzey and Knight" (listed here) is the best though. I bought this one since I liked the pictures so much I figured (correctly) that I would spend more time looking through it. I feel that I made the right choice since I love the pictures in this one so much. I have the 6th edition, the current one is the updated version of the 8th edition, which has a different colour cover to the original 8th edition with a black cover. I'm not sure why they haven't called this the 9th edition.

Purchase 8th ed. updated from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase 8th ed. updated from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

Click here to purchase 8th ed. updated version from Australia (The Nile)

Click here to purchase from Australia (Fishpond)

Click here to purchase 8th ed. original version from Amazon

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