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Old World Sparrows (Passeridae)

Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) - HBW 14, p. 804

French: Moineau friquet German: Feldsperling Spanish: Gorrión Molinero
Other common names: (European) Tree Sparrow

Taxonomy: Fringilla montana Linnaeus, 1758, "in Europa" = northern Italy.
Probably evolved from a sparrow population that was isolated in Yellow R valley (China), which remained free of ice, during last glaciation of Pleistocene (25,000-15,000 years ago). Not infrequently hybridizes with P. domesticus where one of the two species is rare and presumably has difficulty in finding mate of own species; hybrids with P. hispaniolensis also reported. Race iubilaeus is sometimes treated as synonym of saturatus and obscuratus as synonym of dilutus. Proposed race zaissanensis (from Kara Irtysh, in extreme E Kazakhstan) subsume.. View all taxonomy...

Taxonomy: Fringilla montana Linnaeus, 1758, "in Europa" = northern Italy.
Probably evolved from a sparrow population that was isolated in Yellow R valley (China), which remained free of ice, during last glaciation of Pleistocene (25,000-15,000 years ago). Not infrequently hybridizes with P. domesticus where one of the two species is rare and presumably has difficulty in finding mate of own species; hybrids with P. hispaniolensis also reported. Race iubilaeus is sometimes treated as synonym of saturatus and obscuratus as synonym of dilutus. Proposed race zaissanensis (from Kara Irtysh, in extreme E Kazakhstan) subsumed into dilutus, and hepaticus (from Mishmi Hills, in NW Asssam, in NE India) synonymized with malaccensis. Ten subspecies ­recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • montanus ( Linnaeus, 1758) - from Europe E through NC Asia to Kamchatka and Commander Is, S to Mediterranean islands, Turkey, N Kazakhstan, NE Mongolia and NE China (N Inner Mongolia).
  • transcaucasicus Buturlin, 1906 - E Asia Minor and Caucasus region S to Armenia and E to N Iran (N of Elburz Mts).
  • dilutus Richmond, 1896 - Caspian Sea E to S Kazakhstan, NW China and W & S Mongolia.

     See all 10 subspecies
  • montanus ( Linnaeus, 1758) - from Europe E through NC Asia to Kamchatka and Commander Is, S to Mediterranean islands, Turkey, N Kazakhstan, NE Mongolia and NE China (N Inner Mongolia).
  • transcaucasicus Buturlin, 1906 - E Asia Minor and Caucasus region S to Armenia and E to N Iran (N of Elburz Mts).
  • dilutus Richmond, 1896 - Caspian Sea E to S Kazakhstan, NW China and W & S Mongolia.
  • kansuensis Stresemann, 1932 - N Gansu and Tsaidam Basin, in N China.
  • tibetanus Stuart Baker, 1925 - S & E Tibetan Plateau and C China (E to SE Qinghai and W Sichuan).
  • dybowskii Domaniewski, 1915 - E Asia from extreme SE Russia (lower R Amur) S to NE China (E Inner Mongolia and Liaoning) and N Korea.
  • iubilaeus Reichenow, 1907 - E China from Beijing S to E Sichuan and lower R Yangtze.
  • obscuratus Jacobi, 1923 - Nepal E to NE India.
  • malaccensis A. J. C. Dubois, 1885 - SE Asia from Myanmar E to Indochina and SE China (including Hainan), S to Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, S Philippines, Sulawesi and Lesser Sundas.
  • saturatus Stejneger, 1885 - Sakhalin I, S Kurils, Japan, S Korea, Ryukyu Is, Taiwan, Philippines, N Borneo and N Indonesian islands.

Photos

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