Swinhoe's White-eye
Zosterops simplex
Swinhoe's White-eye · San Diego Botanic Garden · 7 March 2026
A Swinhoe's White-eye in a San Diego garden, an Asian bird established in coastal San Diego County since a small number escaped or were released from aviaries in the 1980s and found the mild climate and garden plantings entirely to their liking. In China and Taiwan, where it comes from, it is a bird of gardens and forest edge, and it has simply carried on.
For years they were recorded as Japanese White-eyes; when that species was split in 2018 the Californian birds, descended from Chinese stock, became Swinhoe's. The bold white eye-ring is the giveaway at any distance; the greenish-yellow body could otherwise pass for any number of small warblers.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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