House Sparrow | Passer domesticus

Voice

A monotonous, penetrating chirp, cheep or chirrup, repeated endlessly by the male at the nest site; flocks produce a busy twittering. The alarm is a rattling churrr-r-r.

Identification

14 to 15 cm, stocky, with a thick conical bill. The male has a grey crown and rump, a chestnut band from behind the eye to the nape, greyish-white cheeks and black lores and throat that in breeding plumage extend into a black bib on the breast; the bill is then black. Outside the breeding season the bill is horn-coloured and the bib partly hidden by pale feather fringes. The back is warm brown streaked black, with a single white wing bar. The female is plain grey-brown below, with a streaked brown back and a pale supercilium behind the eye; she has no black on the face. Juveniles resemble the female.

Confusion species

The male Cape Sparrow (Passer melanurus) has a black head with a broad white C-shaped band and a chestnut back; the female has a grey head with a faint pale half-circle behind the eye. Southern Grey-Headed Sparrow (Passer diffusus) has a plain grey head without black in both sexes and a rufous rump. Great Sparrow (Passer motitensis) is larger, with much more rufous on head and back, and lives in dry savanna, rarely in villages. Female and non-breeding weavers and bishops have a more pointed or heavier bill, a yellow or pale supercilium that also runs in front of the eye, and often a streaked breast.

Habitat

Towns, villages, farmyards, filling stations, livestock pens, grain silos and harbours, practically never far from buildings. It eats seeds, grain, bread crumbs and scraps and feeds the young on insects. It nests in holes and crevices in buildings, under eaves, in lamp posts and sometimes in old swallow or weaver nests; the nest is an untidy dome of grass, paper and feathers.

Range and movements

Introduced. Birds of Indian origin were released in Durban in the late nineteenth century, followed later by releases in East London; from there the species spread through all of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Since the second half of the twentieth century it has also penetrated Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi along roads and railways, and in Angola mainly the south. Its native range covers Europe, North Africa and much of Asia; elsewhere in the world it has been introduced almost everywhere.

• Resident
• Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
• Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

At a filling station or campsite House Sparrows often feed alongside Cape Sparrows: a good chance to learn the plumages of both sexes side by side. When in doubt, check for the grey crown of the male and the pale stripe behind the eye of the female. On the northern edge of the range, at new border posts, mining towns and along new roads, records are still worth reporting.

Conservation status

Not threatened; globally one of the most widespread birds. Introduced in southern Africa and still spreading in the north. It competes with native species such as Cape Sparrow for nest sites, but the impact seems limited. In parts of Europe numbers have fallen sharply, especially in cities.

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.