Field Identification

The Bridled White-eye is notable for its diminutive size, greenish back, yellow breast, and distinct white eyering, although juveniles are distinctly less yellow than adults. It is sexually monomorphic, and typically occupies the forest canopy.

The only other white-eye within the geographic range of the Bridled White-eye is the rather distantly related Golden White-eye (Cleptornis marchei), which is much larger, has a weakly whitish eyering, yellow-orange plumage, and an orange beak and legs. Unlike the vocalizations of the Bridled White-eye, which are primarily thin chit-chit-chit notes and whines, the Golden White-eye has a melodious song.

The small white-eye of the Mariana Islands of Rota, the Rota White-eye (Zosterops rotensis), has a white eyering but yellowish lores, yellowish green plumage above, bright yellowish plumage below, and an orange bill and legs.

Other co-occurring small passerines in the Marianas include the brilliant red Micronesian Myzomela (Myzomela rubratra) and the brown and burnt orange Micronesian Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura versicolor).

The similarly sized Caroline Islands White-eye (Zosterops semperi) of Palau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and the Caroline Islands is similar in appearance and was once considered conspecific with the Bridled White-eye (e.g., 1 Baker, R. H. (1951). The avifauna of Micronesia. Its origin, evolution, and distribution. University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History 3(1):1–359. Close ). It is brighter greenish yellow above and yellowish below, although less so than the Rota White-eye.

The also similarly sized Dusky White-eye (Zosterops finschii) of Palau has upper parts smoky olivaceous gray, lores dingy white, auriculars brownish, no white eyering, underparts pale ash gray, and wing and tail feathers dark brownish gray with paler greenish-gray outer edges.