Mejiro – Japanese White-Eye
The Japanese White-Eye, or Mejiro (Zosterops japonicus) is my second favorite bird here in Japan. It is lovely green and has a beautiful singing voice. There are few things that compare to listening to a couple of these birds having a morning conversation while having tea in a Japanese garden! I took a photo of this bird at the Nagoya zoo where it was feasting on a piece of apple conveniently placed so that it would be easy to spot in the green house. It’s not easy to get photos like this in the wild! There’s a nice video of a mejiro singing here. I wonder if they are possible to keep as pets? You might have noticed that quite a few stations on the Tokyo Yamanote line, the circular train line, are named after birds! This is one of them.
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What an utterly delightful fellow with so much to say! >_<
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Thank you Juuri! (^-^)
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I know I said it before, but I’ll say it again! you’re an incredible photographer! 😀
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Haha…. you are much too kind! Thank you though… (^-^) This was an easy shot! Anyone with a toy camera could have gotten it! (^-^;)
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I could get myself the best camera and i still wouldn’t be able to take a picture like yours 🙂
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Maybe not, but if you got a 10 second lesson and had such a nice model…! (^-^) Thanks though… (^-^;)
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You’re most welcome! 🙂
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A true masterpiece!!!
Congratulations 🙂
This shot is really amazing and looks like a painting!
I like so much these lovely Japanese white-eyes!!!
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Thank you Lili, much too kind! A sitting bird is not a difficult target, especially not with such a juicy piece of apple! I love his eyes too. (^-^)
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Hey,
I don’t know how you done that but this picture kind looks like a painting. Great blured background and the bird on the appel is perfect. Have to say it’s probably the best picture i saw here. It’s brilliant 🙂
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Thank you Romain! I agree it is one of the better photos I have, but technically it is extremely straight forward and a very easy shot to get… (^-^;)
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Well good for you, sometimes it’s not about technics but more about chance 😉
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I agree! That’s why it is so difficult… (^-^) Thank you again!
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Japanese white-eyes were historically kept as cage birds, probably not so much these days.
White-eyes are easy to hear but hard to spot in a free-flight aviary (and hard to spot in the wild, I suspect). Lots of looking up leads to a syndrome known among North American birders as “warbler neck.”
Japanese white-eyes were, unfortunately, released in Hawaii where they spread diseases and parasites to the endemic Hawaiian birds and help spread the seeds of invasive alien plants. (Sadly, the one time I visited Hawaii, I only managed to see a couple of species of native birds; all the others were introduced species.)
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Warble-Neck? Haha… I can imagine the pain… (^-^;) Thank you for the information! One day maybe… at least I can live in a place where there’s lots of these lovely little birds!
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Lovely creature ^-^ Reminds me, I soon have to go and put out some seeds for the birdies here, when the weather gets colder!
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That’s a great idea! One day I’d like to build a feeding table with a motion activated close up camera onboard! (^-^)
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I know I’m late to the party but yes, they make delightful pets. I have one I saved as a chick before a storm killed him. I handfed him and he’s been with me ever since. At one point I could get him to hop onto my hand and if I let him out he’d hop all over me and try to ‘participate’ in whatever I was doing. He LOVES my phone and will examine the screen and if I try to photograph him with it, he tries to lick the camera lens. Unfortunately I left him alone too long (a month) and he reverted to his more wild state but if I catch him, he calms right down and let’s me scratch him, but in general he prefers not to be handled so I let him be but he’s not afraid of me. He sings/warbles wonderfully in the morning and whenever he’s hungry. He’s pretty loud for a little guy but He’s adorable! I can’t get over him, he’s a delight. I feed him a wide variety of baby food fruit mash as well as fresh fruit and a mix of handfeeding formula and crickets and some rather expensive powdered bird vitamins. Every once in awhile I give him a few drops of fruit juice as a treat.
He has a terrarium fountain in his cage but he prefers to drink from a bottle. I’ve placed plastic vines around his cage and that seems to give him comfort and cover but in general he’s pretty outgoing personality wise!
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I just found a tiny meijiro and started hand feeding it. He has all his feathers and so tiny. Do I continue to feed it fruits as he gets older?
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