Socotra sparrow

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Passer insularis - November 2023.jpg

| image_caption = on Socotra

| image2 = Passer insularis Smit.jpg

| image2_caption = Illustration

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Passer insularis |volume=2018 |page=e.T22736000A132187599 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22736000A132187599.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| taxon = Passer insularis

| authority = Sclater, PL & Hartlaub, 1881{{cite book|last1=Sclater|first1=P. L.|last2=Hartlaub|first2=G.|year=1881|contribution=On the Birds collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balfour|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30759287|title=Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1881|volume=1881 |pages=165–175}}

}}

The Socotra sparrow (Passer insularis) is a passerine bird endemic to the islands of Socotra, Samhah, and Darsah in the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa.{{cite book|last1=Balfour|first1=I. B.|last2=Forbes|first2=Henry O.|author-link=Isaac Bayley Balfour|authorlink2=Henry Ogg Forbes|editor=Forbes, Henry O.|year=1903|contribution=The Birds of Sokotra|title=The Natural History of Sokotra and Abd-el-kuri|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24884250|location=London|publisher=R. H. Porter}}{{harvnb|Shelley|1902| pp=238–239}} The taxonomy of this species and its relatives is complex, with some authorities, including BirdLife International, recognising this species and the very similar Abd al-Kuri sparrow, as well as several from mainland Africa, as separate,{{cite web|url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=32617&m=0|title=Species factsheet: Passer insularis|author=BirdLife International|author-link=BirdLife International|year=2010|access-date=24 June 2010}}{{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}} and others lumping all these species and the probably unrelated Iago sparrow.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988| p=92}}