Whitehead
Mohoua albicilla (Lesson, 1830)
The whitehead (Mohoua albicilla) is a species in the family Mohouidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 16 g to 24 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
Quick facts about the whitehead
- Weight
- 16 g – 24 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 8 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3src for Young per litter or clutch
- Lifestyle
- Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the whitehead live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The whitehead is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the whitehead?
The whitehead (Mohoua albicilla; Māori: pōpokotea) is a species of small (15 cm in length, 18.5/14.5 g.) passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It is classified in the family Mohouidae. The male whitehead's upperparts, wings and tail are a pale brown in colour, while the head and underparts are white – in the case of the male an almost pure white in colour. Females and juveniles have similar colouration except that the nape and crown (top of the head) are shaded brown. The black beak and eyes contrast with the white head and the feet are bluish black in colouration.
Formerly quite common and widespread in native forests in the North Island, the whitehead has suffered a marked decline in the past two centuries since European colonisation and today it is restricted to a fraction of its former range. Historically, deforestation has destroyed large areas of habitat for this species but today the greatest threat is from predation by invasive mammalian species such as rats and stoats. It has been the subject of an active conservation campaign and has been successfully reintroduced into reserves near Auckland and Wellington respectively. In the past whiteheads held a special place in Māori culture. As well as the species appearing in many legends, whiteheads were viewed by Māori to have roles as messengers of the gods and as fortune tellers or seers – and because of these beliefs, live birds were caught and used in several different kinds of ceremonial rites.
From the Wikipedia article “Whitehead (bird)” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Whitehead_%28bird%29&oldid=1379925781), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the whitehead endangered?
The whitehead is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the whitehead classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyMohouidae
- genusMohoua
- SpeciesMohoua albicilla (Lesson, 1830)
Synonyms Fringilla albicilla, Mohoua ochrocephala albicilla, Muscicapa chloris albicilla
Other names and names in other languages (29)
- PopokateaEnglish
- moua capblancaCatalan
- pištec bělohlavýCzech
- Hvidhovedet MohouaDanish
- WeißköpfchenGerman
- blankakapa mohuoEsperanto
- Mohoua cabeciblancaSpanish
- Mohoua CabeciblancoSpanish
- Mohoua à tête blancheFrench
- bjeloglava zviždavkaCroatian
- fehérfejű maoriposzátaHungarian
- TestabiancaItalian
- シロモフアムシクイJapanese
- baltagalvė mohuaLithuanian
- PōpokateaMāori
- PōpokoteaMāori
- WitkopmohouaDutch
- hvithodemohuaNorwegian
- maorysek białogłowyPolish
- moúa-de-cabeça-brancaPortuguese
- mohoua-de-cabeça-brancaPortuguese
- Белоголовая мохуаRussian
- proroček bielohlavýSlovak
- Beloglava mohuaSerbian
- vithuvad mohuaSwedish
- Mohu MohuasıTurkish
- могуа білоголовийUkrainian
- 白头刺莺Chinese
- 白頭刺鶯Chinese
Relatives of the whitehead
Other species in the same genus Mohoua.
Yellowhead
Mohoua ochrocephala
Pīpipi
Mohoua novaeseelandiae
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the whitehead?
An adult whitehead weighs 16 g – 24 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the whitehead live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the whitehead for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the whitehead endangered?
The whitehead is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
What kind of animal is the whitehead?
The whitehead (Mohoua albicilla) belongs to the family Mohouidae in the order Passeriformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Whitehead (Mohoua albicilla). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/whitehead
“Whitehead (Mohoua albicilla).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/whitehead.
@misc{whitehead_2026,
title = {Whitehead (Mohoua albicilla)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/whitehead},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}