New World sparrows | Passerellidae

Amerikaanse gorzen | Chingolos

The sparrows of the New World: seed-eaters with a short conical bill, strong feet and a fairly long, round-ended tail, mostly brown and streaked above. They feed on the ground in leaf litter and under bushes, with a scratch that marks the whole family: both feet kicked back together in a short hop. The head pattern is what identification turns on: crown bands, supercilium, eye-stripe and malar stripe in fixed arrangements. They have been placed in a family of their own since around 2017, apart from the Emberizidae. In the region the family is small, with nine species. Zapata Sparrow occurs only on Cuba, mainly in the Zapata Swamp. Rufous-collared Sparrow lives in the mountains of Hispaniola, and Grasshopper Sparrow has resident populations in the Greater Antilles. The other species, such as Savannah Sparrow, are winter visitors or vagrants from North America, mainly to the Bahamas and Cuba.