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Italian Sparrow | Passer italiae
Italiaanse mus | Gorrión italiano
Italian Sparrow is a stable hybrid species of House and Spanish Sparrow that arose on the Italian Peninsula. Strictly speaking it does not breed in North Africa, but from eastern Algeria through Tunisia into Tripolitania, sparrows produced by hybridisation of the same two parents and closely resembling Italian Sparrows have lived for more than a century. Databases and part of the literature file them under this name; genetically they are separate, mixed populations.
Voice
Not distinguishable from House Sparrow: the same chilp in series from roofs and walls, the same nasal rattle in alarm and the same group chatter at the roost.
Recording: Guido — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
Size and posture as House Sparrow, about 14–16 cm. The Italian-type male has a wholly chestnut crown and nape without grey, black lores, a pure white cheek and a small, neatly bordered black bib on chin and throat. The underparts are plain dirty white to pale grey, without the black flank streaks of Spanish Sparrow. The back is warm brown with black streaks, the wing has one white bar and the bill is black when breeding. In North Africa the hybrid birds vary a lot: some show grey in the crown, too large a bib or faint flank streaking. The female cannot be told from a female House Sparrow.
Confusion species
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) has a grey crown and greyish cheek. Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) shares the chestnut crown and white cheek but has a large bib and heavy black streaks on breast and flanks. In Algeria, Tunisia and Libya the features of all three intergrade; many males there cannot sensibly be named and are best recorded as hybrids.
Habitat
In North Africa mainly in towns and villages, where the hybrids nest in holes in buildings like House Sparrows, and in oases with date-palm groves, especially where Spanish Sparrows are absent. It feeds in gardens, yards, markets and fields around settlements. In Italy the common town sparrow of squares, villages and olive groves.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Hybrid populations with an Italian look form a diffuse hybrid zone from eastern Algeria (including the high plateaus near Djelfa and the oases of Biskra and the Zibans) through Tunisia to eastern Tripolitania in Libya; in Morocco and Egypt the birds are House and Spanish Sparrows. The Italian Sparrow proper occupies the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Corsica, Crete and Malta; the population of Lampedusa is genetically close to the Algerian hybrids. Birds from Italy have not been confirmed in the region.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Tunisian towns and Algerian oases, check the males on the roofs: alongside typical House and Spanish Sparrows there are birds with a chestnut crown, white cheek and small bib. Record such birds as Italian type or hybrid, with a photograph, rather than as a certain Italian Sparrow.
Conservation status
Vulnerable on the Red List because of a rapid decline in Italy, where loss of nest sites in buildings, less food in towns and agricultural intensification play a part. The North African hybrid populations are numerous and in effect fall outside this assessment.
Scientific name
Passer italiae | (Vieillot, 1817)
Vieillot described the species in 1817 as Fringilla Italiae; 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'. italiae is Latin for 'of Italy', the peninsula to which the species is almost entirely confined. The specimen the first description was based on came from Italy.