Spanish sparrow
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| image = Passer Hispaniolensis Male.JPG
| image_caption = Male in Sardinia
| taxon = Passer hispaniolensis
| authority = (Temminck, 1820)
| range_map =
| range_map_caption =
| synonyms =
}}
The Spanish sparrow or willow sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is found in the Mediterranean region and south-west and central Asia. It is very similar to the closely related house sparrow, and the two species show their close relation in a "biological mix-up" of hybridisation in the Mediterranean region, which complicates the taxonomy of this species.
Description
File:Passer hispaniolensis -Canary Islands, Spain -female-8 (1).jpg
The Spanish sparrow is a rather large sparrow, at {{convert|15|–|16|cm|in|round=0.5|abbr=on}} in length, and {{convert|22|–|36|g|oz|abbr=on}} in weight. It is slightly larger and heavier than house sparrows, and also has a slightly longer and stouter bill. The male is similar to the house sparrow in plumage, but differs in that its underparts are heavily streaked with black, has a chestnut rather than grey crown, and has white rather than grey cheeks.{{harvnb|Clement|Harris|Davis|1993|pp=446–447}}{{harvnb|Shelley|1902|pp=235–237}}{{harvnb|Dresser|1902|p=291}}{{cite journal|title=Moineaux domestiques et Moineaux espagnols, Passer domesticus et P. hispaniolensis, dans une région de l'ouest algérien : analyse comparative de leur morphologie externe|journal=Le Gerfaut |year=1986|author=Metzmacher, M.|volume=76|pages=317–334|language=fr, en}} The female is effectively inseparable from the house sparrow in its basic plumage, which is grey-brown overall but more boldly marked. The female has light streaking on its sides, a pale cream supercilium, and broad cream streaks on its back.{{harvnb|Oates|1890|p=239}}
Two subspecies of the Spanish sparrow – the western Spanish sparrow (P. h. hispaniolensis) and eastern Spanish sparrow (P. h. transcaspicus) – are recognised, with little visible difference between them in worn breeding plumage. They are more easily distinguished in fresh winter plumage, with the eastern subspecies P. h. transcaspicus being paler with less chestnut.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988| pp=164–165}}
Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) male breeding plumage ringed Malta.jpg|ringed male (breeding plumage) in Malta
Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) female ringed Malta.jpg|ringed female in Malta
= Voice =
File:Passer hispaniolensis song algeria.jpg
The Spanish sparrow's vocalisations are similar to those of the house sparrow. The male gives a call somewhat different from that of the house sparrow when displaying at its nest. This call is a pair of strident, disyllabic chirps, similar to those of the house sparrow, but louder and high-pitched, transcribed as {{not a typo|chweeng-chweeng, cheela-cheeli}}. A similar call, softer and more like the house sparrow's {{not a typo|tschilp}}, is used by birds arriving or departing at roosting sites. The Spanish sparrow's other calls are almost the same as those of the house sparrow. A soft {{not a typo|quer quer quer}} is given at the nest by mated pairs, a {{not a typo|quer-it}} flight call is given by flocking birds, and a {{not a typo|chur-chur-it}} call is given as a threat.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988| p=177}}
Taxonomy and systematics
File:PasserHispaniolensisGould.jpg of a male Spanish sparrow (above) and an Italian sparrow pair]]
Its taxonomy is greatly complicated by the "biological mix-up" it forms with the house sparrow in the Mediterranean. In most of the Mediterranean, one or both of the two species occurs, with only a limited degree of hybridisation. On the Italian Peninsula and Corsica, the two species are replaced by the Italian sparrow, a puzzling type of sparrow apparently intermediate between the Spanish sparrow and the house sparrow.
The Italian sparrow has been classified as a hybrid between the Spanish sparrow and the house sparrow, a subspecies of the Spanish sparrow, a subspecies of the house sparrow and/or a separate species. The Spanish sparrow also hybridises freely with the house sparrow in parts of North Africa (northeastern Algeria, Tunisia, and northwestern Libya), forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.{{harvnb|Snow|Perrins|1998|pp=1506–1509}}{{cite journal|last=Töpfer|first=Till|year=2006|title=The taxonomic status of the Italian Sparrow – Passer italiae (Vieillot 1817): Speciation by stabilised hybridisation? A critical analysis|journal=Zootaxa|volume=1325|pages=117–145|doi=10.11646/zootaxa.1325.1.8|issn=1175-5334}} On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes and Karpathos, there are more apparently intermediate birds of unknown status.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988|pp=169–170}}
The Spanish sparrow was first described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck as Fringilla hispaniolensis, from a specimen collected at Algeciras, in southern Spain. The usual English name refers to the description of the species from Spain. The name willow sparrow, referring to the moist habitat of this bird, is sometimes used, especially when the Italian sparrow is considered the same species.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988|pp= 162–163}} The genus name Passer is the Latin word for sparrow, and hispaniolensis is Neo-Latin for "Spanish".{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A. | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London, United Kingdom | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n193 193], 294}}
Two subspecies of Spanish sparrow are usually recognised, the western nominate subspecies hispaniolensis, and the eastern transcaspicus, described by Austrian ornithologist Viktor von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen in 1902 from Ýolöten, Turkmenistan. Birds in Anatolia and Cyprus are usually considered to belong to P. h. transcaspicus, but birds as far east as Ceylanpınar have been noted as intermediates and the difference between the two subspecies may actually be clinal.
Distribution and habitat
The Spanish sparrow has a highly complex distribution in the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia, and southwest to central Asia. It breeds mostly in a band of latitude about 15 degrees wide, from the Danube Valley and the Aral Sea in the north to Libya and central Iran in the south.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1988|pp=165–169}} Its range has expanded greatly by natural colonisation over the last two centuries, in the Balkans, where it reached Romania, Serbia, and Moldova from 1950 onwards;{{cite journal|title=The range of the Spanish sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis (Temminck) in Bosnia and Herzegovina|last=Obratil|first=S.|year=1985|journal=Larus|volume=36–37|pages=49–57}} and in Macaronesia, where its range expansion has been attributed to introductions and travel by ship, but was more likely natural colonisation by migrating birds.{{harvnb|Summers-Smith|1992|pp=42–47}} Vagrants occur widely, as far north as Scotland and Norway.
A study has shown that vagrant individuals tend to occur very close to railway lines, much closer than with other vagrant passerines. This results suggests that Spanish sparrows' vagrancy and expansion may be facilitated in part by cargo trains.{{cite journal|last=Rozsa|first=L.|year=2018|title=Railway-facilitated dispersal of the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) during its current range expansion in the Pannonian Basin|journal= BioInvasions Records|volume=7|issue=4|pages=469–473|url=http://www.reabic.net/journals/bir/2018/4/BIR_2018_Rozsa.pdf|doi=10.3391/bir.2018.7.4.20|doi-access=free}}
File:SpanishSparrowMap.svg range}}
Other colours represent zones of hybridisation -->]]
