One thought on “Chestnut-sided White-eye (Zosterops mayottensis)”
I have been working on Mayotte since the last 24 years, conducting visits every year of almost for various studies, including coordinating the lasgt Red List working group with GEPOMAY as part of a contract with DEAL. I have not been to Mayotte yet this year and have not been able to make my own opinion on consequences of Chido on bird species and their habitats? However, I think it is premature to decide upon a uplisting of this species based on possible consequences of Chido on its population. This white-eye is not at all a typical forest species, although he is also found in all types of forests at low densities (including mangroves where it is well represented). The species is more representative and reaches higher abundances in brushland and dry (low) forests found in the past. My report Rocamora G. 2004 Les oiseaux des espaces remarquables de Mayotte. Rapport DAF (available from my Research Gate) provides evidence of this. Hence habitat changes due to the degradation of forests may not be necessarily negative. Even if there WAS concording evidence from various sources about a rarefaction of this species, we should wait for 2-3 years to give a chance to populations to recover after Chido before concluding that they have declined and that the species conservation status should be changed to NT. Therefore, I am not favourable to this change, at least for the time being.
I have been working on Mayotte since the last 24 years, conducting visits every year of almost for various studies, including coordinating the lasgt Red List working group with GEPOMAY as part of a contract with DEAL. I have not been to Mayotte yet this year and have not been able to make my own opinion on consequences of Chido on bird species and their habitats? However, I think it is premature to decide upon a uplisting of this species based on possible consequences of Chido on its population. This white-eye is not at all a typical forest species, although he is also found in all types of forests at low densities (including mangroves where it is well represented). The species is more representative and reaches higher abundances in brushland and dry (low) forests found in the past. My report Rocamora G. 2004 Les oiseaux des espaces remarquables de Mayotte. Rapport DAF (available from my Research Gate) provides evidence of this. Hence habitat changes due to the degradation of forests may not be necessarily negative. Even if there WAS concording evidence from various sources about a rarefaction of this species, we should wait for 2-3 years to give a chance to populations to recover after Chido before concluding that they have declined and that the species conservation status should be changed to NT. Therefore, I am not favourable to this change, at least for the time being.