Two sweet Indian white-eyes

Two fuzzy yellow birds with white eye markings facing each other among leaves and twigs.

Indian white-eyes (Zosterops palpebrosus) are small birds, about 4-6 inches (10-15 cm) long. They’re sometimes kept as pets. Our friend Swami Krishnananda sent this series of images of these birds on August 8, 2019, and wrote, “Yesterday a flock of white-eyes landed on a tree below my room. Two of them started grooming themselves, grooming each other, sharing some sweet words of love …”

Two fuzzy yellow birds cuddling among leafy branches.

Photo by Swami Krishnananda.

Two fuzzy yellow birds with long pointed black beaks and white marks around their eyes.

“While there two birds called white-eye, there are four white eyes looking at you!!” wrote Swami Krishnananda.

Two yellow fuzzy birds with white marking around their eyes looking straight at you.

And he wrote: “They were also looking at me as if to ask why I was intruding on them and what I was up to!! JAI GURU!!”

Bottom line: Photo from India of two Indian white-eyes, formerly called Oriental white-eyes.

Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.