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House Sparrow | Passer domesticus
Huismus | Gorrión común
The House Sparrow is native to Europe, North Africa and much of Asia and has been spread by people over almost the entire world. In the Caribbean it was introduced to Cuba in the 19th century; since then it has spread, mainly via ports and towns, through the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. The first colonisation of the Lesser Antilles was documented in 1999 on St Martin and Guadeloupe, and the species is still expanding there.
Voice
A frequently repeated chirp, strung together into a monotonous song in the breeding season, and a rattling churrr when agitated. Flocks are noisy at communal roosts.
Recording: Manuel Grosselet — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–16 cm, sturdy, with a short, conical bill. The male has a grey crown, a chestnut band from behind the eye to the nape, greyish-white cheeks and a black bib that is larger and darker in the breeding season. Back and wings are brown with black streaks and a narrow white wing bar; the underparts are grey. The bill is black when breeding, otherwise yellowish with a dark tip. The female is brown with blackish streaks above and plain grey-brown below, with a pale supercilium behind the eye and a yellowish bill. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
Males have no similar species in the region. Female Dickcissel Spiza americana has a yellowish supercilium, a yellow-tinged breast and rufous lesser coverts. Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus savannarum is smaller, with a short tail and a buffy, striped head. Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis on Hispaniola has a grey head with black stripes, a short crest and a rufous collar.
Habitat
Towns, villages, ports, airports, petrol stations, farms and hotel grounds, almost always close to people; scarcely found away from buildings. It eats seeds, crumbs and other food waste, and feeds its young mainly on insects. The nest is an untidy wad of grass and feathers in holes and crevices in buildings, under eaves, in lamp posts or in palms, sometimes a free-standing domed nest in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Established on Cuba, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico with Vieques, Culebra and Mona, the US and British Virgin Islands, and on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. In the Lesser Antilles established on Anguilla, St Martin, St Barthélemy, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Guadeloupe, St Lucia and St Vincent, among others; scarce on Barbados and Grenada. Isolated records from Dominica, Montserrat, Martinique and Trinidad. Elsewhere native to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and much of Asia; introduced to North and South America, southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In almost every town and port in the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas and the ABC Islands, often around terraces, markets and petrol stations. In the Lesser Antilles its range is still changing; records from islands where it is not yet established are worth reporting.
Conservation status
Not threatened globally, although it has declined sharply in parts of Europe. In the Caribbean an expanding alien that is still colonising new islands.
Scientific name
Passer domesticus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Fringilla domestica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Passer was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Passer is the Latin word for 'sparrow'. domesticus is Latin for 'belonging to the house', for the bird's life close to people. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sweden.