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Spanish
Sparrow (Male) Passer hispaniolensis;
copyright Sujan Chatterjee;
2004 |
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Spanish
Sparrow (Male) Passer hispaniolensis;
copyright Sujan Chatterjee;
2004 |
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Spanish
Sparrow (Female) Passer hispaniolensis;
copyright Mike Prince; 2004 |
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Polytypic
Size:
15 cm (6 in)
Description:
Male
Above,
crown and nape chestnut. Back black
with whitish streaks. Wings pale
brown. Below,
cheeks white. Throat and breast
black. Rest of underparts whitish
streaked with dark brown on flanks.
Chestnut crown and conspicuously
streaked flanks distinguish the
males from the House Sparrow; black
on the breast more extensive on
sides. Female has
faint streaking on breast but not
distinguishable from House Sparrow
unless in hand, and then without
surety.
Call:
Generally very similar to House
Sparrow P. domesticus,
but advertising-calls typically
fuller and louder with strident
quality.
Status
& Distribution: Winter
visitor and locally abundant and
passage migrant. The plains of Punjab
and Haryana from Kohat east to Ambala
(Harike); south to northeastern
Rajasthan and Bhawalpur.
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Habitat:
Typically, however, a warm lowland
moisture-loving species inhabiting
trees, shrubs, thickets, and reedbeds
along riversides or irrigation ditches,
groves of date palms Phoenix, Acacia,
and eucalyptus, and even glades in
woods and forests. In the course of
recent evolution it seems that this
species tended to diverge from P.
domesticus partly by becoming
adapted to less arid areas and even
to moist habitats, and partly by preferring
to nest in vegetation and less frequently
occupying human cultivation and settlements
In Tunisia, seems to be a typical
steppe species which avoids woodland
and mountains and has taken advantage
of cultivation of cereals; where P.
domesticus is locally absent,
seasonally occupies the normal urban
niche of that species; In India, winters
in large flocks, both in cultivation
and semi-desert. |
Migration:
Some southern European populations are mainly
resident, but others partially migrate.
Populations in north-west Africa are both
migratory and nomadic. Eastern populations
show more regular migratory behavior, in
some areas moving further north for successive
breeding attempts. Winters in Spain, North
Africa, Middle East, central Asia, northern
Pakistan, and north-west India. |
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