A phylogeny of white-eyes based on ultraconserved elements

White-eyes are an iconic radiation of passerine birds that have been the
subject of studies in evolutionary biology, biogeography, and speciation
theory. Zosterops white-eyes in particular are thought
to have radiated rapidly across continental and insular regions of the
Afro- and Indo-Pacific tropics, yet, their phylogenetic history remains
equivocal. Here, we sampled 77% of the genera and 47% of known white-eye
species and sequenced thousands of ultraconserved elements to infer the
phylogeny of the avian family Zosteropidae. We used concatenated maximum
likelihood and species tree methods and found strong support for seven
clades of white-eyes and three clades within the
species-rich Zosterops radiation.