Shelley's sparrow

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Shelley's Rufous Sparrow - 27-08-06 Murchison Falls - Uganda NP Uganda 06 5442 (28909858907).jpg

| image_caption = A male in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Passer shelleyi |volume=2018 |page=e.T22736010A132187775 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22736010A132187775.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}

| taxon = Passer shelleyi

| authority = Sharpe, 1891

| synonyms = {{hidden begin|title = List}}

• Passer cordofanicus shelleyi
• Passer iagoensis shelleyi
• Passer motitensis shelleyi
• Passer rufocinctus shelleyi

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File:Passer shelleyi.jpg, showing a male Shelley's sparrow]]

Shelley's sparrow (Passer shelleyi), also known as Shelley's rufous sparrow or the White Nile rufous sparrow, is a sparrow found in eastern Africa from South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and north-western Somalia to northern Uganda and north-western Kenya.{{cite web|author=BirdLife International|author-link=BirdLife International|year=2010|title=Species factsheet: Passer shelleyi|url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=32619&m=0|access-date=24 June 2010}} Formerly, it was considered as a subspecies of the Kenya sparrow.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2018 | title=Old World sparrows, snowfinches, weavers | work=World Bird List Version 8.1 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/weavers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=5 October 2018 }} This species is named after English geologist and ornithologist George Ernest Shelley.{{cite book|last1=Boelens|first1=Bo|last2=Watkins|first2=Michael|title=Whose Bird?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-10359-X|page=310}}