Old World sparrows are a group of small
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s forming the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, a name also used for a particular
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of the family, ''
Passer
''Passer'' is a genus of sparrows, also known as the true sparrows. The genus contains 28 species and includes the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow, two of the most common birds in the world. They are small birds with thick bills for ...
''. They are distinct from both the
New World sparrow
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share t ...
s, in the family
Passerellidae
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share t ...
, and from a few other birds sharing their name, such as the
Java sparrow
The Java sparrow (''Padda oryzivora''), also known as Java finch, Java rice sparrow or Java rice bird, is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Java, Bali and Bawean in Indonesia. It is a popular cage bird, ...
of the family
Estrildidae
Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. Despite the word "fi ...
. Many species nest on buildings and the
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
and
Eurasian tree sparrow
The Eurasian tree sparrow (''Passer montanus'') is a passerine bird in the Old World sparrow, sparrow family with a rich chestnut Crown (anatomy), crown and nape, and a black patch on each pure white cheek. The sexes are similarly plumaged, an ...
s, in particular, inhabit cities in large numbers. They are primarily
seed-eaters, though they also consume small
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s. Some species scavenge for food around cities and, like
gull
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...
s or
pigeons
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
, will eat small quantities of a diversity of items.
Description
![Birds in Tharparkar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Birds_in_Tharparkar.jpg)
Generally, Old World sparrows are small, plump, brown and grey birds with short tails and stubby, powerful
beak
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...
s. The differences between sparrow species can be subtle. Members of this family range in size from the
chestnut sparrow
The chestnut sparrow (''Passer eminibey'') is a species of passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. It is the smallest member of the sparrow family, at about long. The breeding male has deep chestnut plumage and the female and juvenile ...
(''Passer eminibey''), at and , to the
parrot-billed sparrow
The parrot-billed sparrow (''Passer gongonensis'') is found in the arid lowlands of eastern Africa. At and , it is the largest of the sparrows of the family Passeridae. It is often considered a subspecies of the grey-headed sparrow.
References ...
(''Passer gongonensis''), at and . Sparrows are physically similar to other seed-eating birds, such as
finch
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...
es, but have a vestigial dorsal outer
primary feather
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...
and an extra bone in the tongue.
This bone, the preglossale, helps stiffen the tongue when holding seeds. Other adaptations for eating seeds are specialised bills and elongated and specialised
alimentary canal
The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans ...
s.
[
]
Taxonomy and systematics
The family Passeridae was introduced (as Passernia) by the French polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...
in 1815. Under the classification used in the ''Handbook of the Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...
'' (''HBW'') main groupings of the sparrows are the true sparrows (genus ''Passer
''Passer'' is a genus of sparrows, also known as the true sparrows. The genus contains 28 species and includes the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow, two of the most common birds in the world. They are small birds with thick bills for ...
''), the snowfinch Snowfinches are a group of small passerine birds in the sparrow family Passeridae. At one time all eight species were placed in the genus ''Montifringilla'' but they are now divided into three genera:
* ''Montifringilla'' (3 species)
** In Europe, ...
es (typically one genus, ''Montifringilla''), and the rock sparrows (''Petronia
The rock sparrow or rock petronia (''Petronia petronia'') is a small passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. It is the only member of the genus ''Petronia''. It breeds on barren rocky hills from the Iberian peninsula and western north A ...
'' and the pale rockfinch). These groups are similar to each other, and are each fairly homogeneous, especially ''Passer''.[ Some classifications also include the sparrow-weavers ('']Plocepasser
The sparrow-weavers (''Plocepasser'') are a genus of birds in the family Ploceidae (weavers), but some taxonomic authorities place them in the family Passeridae (Old World sparrows).
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus ''Plocepasser'' contains ...
'') and several other African genera (otherwise classified among the weavers
Weaver or Weavers may refer to:
Activities
* A person who engages in weaving fabric
Animals
* Various birds of the family Ploceidae
* Crevice weaver spider family
* Orb-weaver spider family
* Weever (or weever-fish)
Arts and entertainment
...
, Ploceidae)[ which are morphologically similar to ''Passer''.] According to a study of molecular and skeletal evidence by Jon Fjeldså and colleagues, the cinnamon ibon of the Philippines, previously considered to be a white-eye
The white-eyes are a family, Zosteropidae, of small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, the ...
, is a sister taxon to the sparrows as defined by the ''HBW''. They therefore classify it as its own subfamily within Passeridae.
Many early classifications of the Old World sparrows placed them as close relatives of the weavers among the various families of small seed-eating birds, based on the similarity of their breeding behaviour, bill structure, and moult, among other characters. Some, starting with P. P. Suskin in the 1920s, placed the sparrows in the weaver family as the subfamily Passerinae, and tied them to ''Plocepasser''. Another family sparrows were classed with was the finch
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...
es (Fringillidae).[
Some authorities previously classified the related ]estrildid finch
Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. Despite the word "fi ...
es of the Old World tropics
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...
as members of the Passeridae. Like sparrows, the estrildid finches are small, gregarious and often colonial seed-eaters with short, thick, but pointed bills. They are broadly similar in structure and habits, but tend to be very colourful and vary greatly in their plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
. The 2008 Christidis and Boles taxonomic
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
scheme lists the estrildid finches as the separate family Estrildidae, leaving just the true sparrows in Passeridae.
Despite some resemblance such as the seed-eater's bill and frequently well-marked heads, New World sparrow
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share t ...
s are members of a different family, Passerellidae
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share t ...
, with 29 genera recognised. Several species in this family are notable singers. New World sparrows are related to Old World buntings, and until 2017, were included in the Old World bunting family Emberizidae
The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills.
Taxonomy
The family Emberizid ...
.
[ The ]hedge sparrow
The dunnock (''Prunella modularis'') is a small passerine, or perching bird, found throughout temperate Europe and into Asian Russia. Dunnocks have also been successfully introduced into New Zealand. It is by far the most widespread member of th ...
or dunnock (''Prunella modularis'') is similarly unrelated. It is a sparrow in name only, a relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.
Biology
A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas.
Geology and geomorphology
In geology, a r ...
of the old practice of calling more types of small birds "sparrows". A few further bird species are also called sparrows, such as the Java sparrow
The Java sparrow (''Padda oryzivora''), also known as Java finch, Java rice sparrow or Java rice bird, is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Java, Bali and Bawean in Indonesia. It is a popular cage bird, ...
, an estrildid finch.
Species
The family contains 43 species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
divided into eight genera:
Distribution and habitat
The Old World sparrows are indigenous to Europe, Africa and Asia. In the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
, Australia, and other parts of the world, settlers imported some species which quickly naturalised, particularly in urban and degraded areas. House sparrows, for example, are now found throughout North America, Australia (every state except Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
), parts of southern and eastern Africa, and over much of the heavily populated parts of South America.
The Old World sparrows are generally birds of open habitats, including grasslands
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natural ...
, deserts
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one ...
, and scrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, Herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or ...
. The snowfinches and ground-sparrows are all species of high latitudes. A few species, like the Eurasian tree sparrow, inhabit open woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...
.[ The aberrant cinnamon ibon has the most unusual habitat of the family, inhabiting the canopy of ]cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...
in the Philippines.
Behaviour and ecology
Old World sparrows are generally social birds, with many species breeding in loose colonies and most species occurring in flocks during the non-breeding season. The great sparrow
The great sparrow (''Passer motitensis''), also known as the southern rufous sparrow, is found in southern Africa in dry, wooded savannah and towns.
This is a 15–16 cm long sparrow superficially like a large house sparrow. It has a ...
is an exception, breeding in solitary pairs and remaining only in small family groups in the non-breeding season. They form large roosting aggregations in the non-breeding seasons that contain only a single species (in contrast to multi-species flocks that might gather for foraging). Sites are chosen for cover and include trees, thick bushes and reed beds. The assemblages can be quite large with up to 10,000 house sparrows counted in one roost in Egypt.[
The Old World sparrows are some of the few passerine birds that engage in dust bathing. They will first scratch a hole in the ground with their feet, then lie in it and fling dirt or sand over their bodies with flicks of their wings. They will also bathe in water, or in dry or melting snow. Water bathing is similar to dust bathing, with the sparrow standing in shallow water and flicking water over its back with its wings, also ducking its head under the water. Both activities are social, with up to a hundred birds participating at once, and is followed by preening and sometimes group singing.][
File:Passer luteus flock Red Sea Sudan.jpg, Sudan golden sparrows, seen here on the ]Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
coast of Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, are highly gregarious outside of the breeding season.
File:Sparrows_bathing.ogv, House sparrows water bathing near Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
in Batumi
Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...
, Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
Eggs
The house sparrow typically lays 3-6 eggs, but has been known to lay as few as 1 and as many as 8 greenish-white eggs. The incubation period is typically 10-14 days.
Relationships with humans
Old World sparrows may be the most familiar of all wild birds worldwide. Many species commonly live in agricultural areas, and for several, human settlements are a primary habitat. The Eurasian tree and house sparrows are particularly specialised in living around humans and inhabit cities in large numbers. 17 of the 26 species recognised by the ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' are known to nest on and feed around buildings.[
Grain-eating species, in particular the house and Sudan golden sparrows, can be significant agricultural pests. They can be beneficial to humans as well, especially by eating insect pests. Attempts at large-scale control have failed to affect populations significantly, or have been accompanied by major increases in insect attacks probably resulting from a reduction of numbers, as in the ]Great Sparrow Campaign
The Four Pests campaign (), was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward in China from 1958 to 1962. The four pests to be eliminated were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of sparrows is also known as the s ...
in 1950s China.[
Because of their familiarity, the house sparrow and other species of the family are frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.] Birds usually described later as Old World sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia. These references may not always refer specifically to Old World sparrows, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow and other members of the family in mind. In particular, Old World sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
and Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
.
Jesus's use of "sparrows" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...
also inspired later references, such as that in the final scene of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' and the Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow" is a gospel hymn written in 1905 by lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel. It is most associated with actress-singer Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography. Mahalia Jackson's recordi ...
".
Sparrows are represented in ancient Egyptian art very rarely, but an
Egyptian hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
G37 is based on the house sparrow. The symbol had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate ''small'', ''narrow'', or ''bad''.
Old World sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, even though most are not particularly colourful and their songs are unremarkable. They are also difficult to keep, as pet sparrows must be raised by hand and a considerable amount of insects are required to feed them. Nevertheless, many people succeed at hand-raising orphaned or abandoned baby sparrows.
The earliest mentions of pet sparrows are from the Romans. Not all the ''passeri'' mentioned, often as pets, in Roman literature were necessarily sparrows, but some accounts of them clearly describe their appearance and habits. The pet ''passer'' of Lesbia
Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus ( 82–52 BC) to refer to his lover. Lesbia is traditionally identified with Clodia, the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and sister of Publius Clodius P ...
in Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...
's poems may not have been a sparrow, but a thrush or European goldfinch
The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch (''Carduelis carduelis'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia. It has been introduced to other areas, including Austral ...
. John Skelton John Skelton may refer to:
*John Skelton (poet) (c.1460–1529), English poet.
* John de Skelton, MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (died 1439), MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (American footb ...
's ''The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe'' is a lament for a pet house sparrow belonging to a Jane Scrope, narrated by Scrope.
References
Citations
Works cited
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Passeridae
at the Internet Bird Collection
{{Authority control
*
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque