Easily recognised by its conspicuous white eye-ring, the silvereye (or wax-eye, Zosterops lateralis), known in Māori as tauhou (meaning "stranger" or "new arrival"), is a small, self-introduced native bird in New Zealand. It was first recorded in New Zealand in 1832, with a larger migration arriving around 1856 (likely blown across the Tasman Sea from Australia by a storm). They are legally and ecologically classified as native because they arrived without human help. Like native honeyeaters (such as the tūī and bellbird), silvereyes have a specialized, brush-tipped tongue designed for lapping up nectar and poking into tight spaces.
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