Great sparrow

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=Passer motitensis |volume=2016 |page=e.T22736005A95122793 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22736005A95122793.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}

| image = Great Sparrow.jpg

| taxon = Passer motitensis

| authority = (Smith, 1836){{cite journal|last=Clancey|first=P. A.|title=On the original description of Passer iagoensis motitensis Smith|journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club|volume=84|issue=6|year=1964|page=110}}

}}

The great sparrow (Passer motitensis), also known as the southern rufous sparrow, is found in southern Africa in dry, wooded savannah and towns.{{harvnb|Clement|Harris|Davis|1993|pp=453–455}}

This is a 15–16 cm long sparrow superficially like a large house sparrow. It has a grey crown and rear neck and rufous upperparts.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988|pp=80–81}}{{cite book|editor=Harrison, J. A.|editor2=Allan, D. G.|editor3=Underhill, L. G.|editor4=Herremans, M.|editor5=Tree, A. J.|editor6=Parker, V.|editor7=Brown, C. J.|author=Herremans, M.|year=1997|contribution=Great Sparrow|url=http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/802.pdf|title=The Atlas of Southern African Birds|publisher=BirdLife South Africa|volume=1}}{{cite book|last=Jensen|first=R. A. C.|contribution=Great Sparrow|page=650|title=The Complete Book of Southern African Birds|editor=Ginn, P. J.|editor2=McIlleron, W. G.|editor3=Milstein, P. le S|year=1989|publisher=Struik Winchester|location=Cape Town|isbn=0-947430-11-3}}{{sfn|Sinclair|Hockey|Tarboton|2002}}

While in the past some authorities considered this species and several related species of 'rufous sparrow' on the African mainland to be the same as the Iago sparrow of Cape Verde, they do not appear to be so closely related as thought. A few currently recognise only some of the rufous sparrows as separate from the great sparrow, but the Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International recognise the Socotra sparrow, Kenya sparrow, Kordofan sparrow, and Shelley's sparrow as separate species.{{cite journal|last=Kirwan|first=Guy M.|year=2008|title=Studies of Socotran Birds III. Morphological and mensural evidence for a 'new' species in the Rufous Sparrow Passer motitensis complex endemic to the island of Abd 'Al Kuri, with the validation of Passer insularis Sclater & Hartlaub, 1881|journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club|volume=128|issue=2|pages=83–93}}{{sfn|Summers-Smith|2009}}