Sparrow hybrid, Bulgaria (1 Viewer)

[Pavel]

Hello, please help ID this Sparrow, captured today at Durankulak, NE Bulgaria.

 

[Butty]

House sparrow

 

[Richard Prior]

Seems to have got some Spanish Sparrow ancestry though….

 

[Butty]

Where do you see that showing?

 

[Richard Prior]

Sorry, I should’ve been a bit more specific: supercilium in front and behind the eye, reduced grey in crown( and looks to be brown- flecked too), whiter rather than greyer cheeks and strongly coloured chestnut median coverts all struck me as suggesting mixed parentage ( or grandparentage ( ooh, a new word!)).
Pavel, do you see this sort of individual occasionally in Bulgaria?

 

[Butty]

I think all these things (possibly or possibly not excluding brownish invasion into the crown?) are well within normal house sparrow appearance.

 

[Pavel]

Seems to have got some Spanish Sparrow ancestry though….

Thank you Richard for your comment! No, it's unusual and really interesting though. The question is whether it is HSxSS or ISxHS hybrid?

 

[Richard Prior]

As you have SS and HS breeding in Bulgaria I’d lean towards that mixture myself.