Eye ring
An eye ring is a brightly colored ring around a bird's eye . In a narrower sense, it means a feathered area around the eye, such as in spectacled birds (Zosteropidae) or the American tyrants of the genus Empidonax . A colored, featherless ring around the eye is called a lid ring or orbital ring (from orbita = eye socket).
Both forms can be important determinants. In some groups of species, the orbital rings are differently colored, such as the large gulls of the genus Larus . Feathered dark circles can be completely or interrupted in one or more places. One speaks for example of a "half ring" or "lids".
White, feathered eye ring on a Japanese goggle bird
Gilbuf tyrant with yellowish eye ring
Unfledged lid ring on a kestrel
White half ring and red orbital ring around the eye of a black-headed gull
literature
- Ralf Wassmann: Ornithological pocket dictionary . AULA-Verlag Wiesbaden 1999. ISBN 3-89104-627-8
