From Opus

Alternative name: Willow Sparrow

Male
Photo by scottishdude
Lesvos, Greece, April 2010

Passer hispaniolensis

[edit] Identification

15 - 16cm

[edit] Male

• Bright chestnut crown
• Broad black bib meeting bold plack pattern on underside and black shoulders
• Whitish cheeks
• Narrow white supercilium
• Black on mantle and shoulders

Female
Photo by A. Meir
Eilat, Israel, October 2008

[edit] Female

• Almost identical to female House Sparrow and usually impossible to separate
• Slightly bigger bill, paler belly and sometimes hint of grey streaking on whiter underparts

Juveniles are similar to females but duller.
Italiae (Italian Sparrow) is sometimes considered conspecific with this species. It has the same head pattern but less heavy black streaks on mantle and black only on upper breast.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in western Spain, Portugal, Sardinia (Italy), northern Africa, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Madeira, Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and east to Iran, south Kazakhstan and northwest China.
Winters to the Arabian Peninsula and northwest India and Pakistan.
Italiae would breed in Italy, southern Switzerland, Corsica, Sicily and Crete.
Common to locally abundant.

Resident in parts of its range, migratory or nomadic in others.

[edit] Taxonomy

Italian Sparrow: a subspecies of Spanish Sparrow, House Sparrow or a full species?
Photo by LECURU
Como, Italy, June 2006

[edit] Subspecies

Two subspecies recognized^[1]:

• P. h. hispaniolensis on the Iberian Peninsula, Sardinia, Greece and Balkans, western Turkey, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Madeira and northwest Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, northeast Libya)
• P. h. transcaspicus in Cyprus, eastern Turkey and the Middle East to Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and northwest China

The Italian Sparrow is sometimes regarded as subspecies of this species.
Forms a superspecies with House Sparrow and Italian Sparrow.

[edit] Habitat

Often in moist, humid areas near water and with trees and shrub. Associated with cultivated land and extends into urban areas where House Sparrow is lacking (eg. Canary Islands or Malta).

[edit] Behaviour

Usually seen in flocks which may be very large.

[edit] Diet

Feeds on seeds of grasses, cultivated crops ans low herbs. Takes also invertebrates. Nestlings are fed with insects.

[edit] Breeding

Breeding season from April to August in the western parts of its range. A colonial breeder, sometimes with several thousand pairs. The nest is a loosely woven spherical structure made of grass and placed in a tree or in lower part of a large nest of a bird of prey, crow, heron or White Stork. Lays 2 - 6 eggs which are incubated for 12 days. The chicks fledge about 14 days old.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
3. Rasmussen, PC and JC Anderton. 2005. Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334672

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• Discussion thread about the taxonomy of Italian Sparrow