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...
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.
- 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.
- Least Concern Enlarge map
-
Calls by one bird. Locality Firefly Lodge, Guanghua, Chiayi County, Taiwan
(ssp saturatus)
Josep del Hoyo 21 April 2011 1 year ago 4.5 -
Calls of a small group Locality Beddington Farm, London, England, Great Britain
(ssp montanus)
Stuart Fisher 21 March 2006 3 years ago 3.5 -
Calls of a small group of adults and juveniles. Locality Columbretes Islands, Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain
(ssp montanus)
Carlos Fabregat 23 February 2011 2 years ago 2 -
Flock of birds calling. Locality Bulgaria
(ssp montanus)
Iva Hristova 23 December 2006 3 years ago 1.5 -
A small flock chattering in a tree. Locality Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nick Talbot 3 September 2012 33 weeks ago 0
Email this page