Old World Sparrows (Passeridae)

Parrot-billed Sparrow (Passer gongonensis) - HBW 14, p. 803

French: Moineau perroquet German: Papageischnabelsperling Spanish: Gorrión Picogordo

Taxonomy: Pseudostruthus gongonensis Oustalet, 1890, Gongoni, near Mombasa, Kenya.
Forms a superspecies with P. griseus, P. swainsonii, P. suahelicus and P. diffusus; all are often treated as conspecific, but they appear not to interbreed in at least parts of their ranges where geographical overlap occurs. It is suggested that an earlier population of grey-headed sparrows was split into five groups by a pluvial period in Pleistocene; as climate became drier, these five then spread and again came into contact with one another, but by then had become sufficiently distinct to remain separate, partly through minor habitat preferences and morphologica.. View all taxonomy...

Distribution: Extreme SE Sudan, S Ethiopia, S Somalia, extreme E Uganda, most of Kenya, and extreme NE Tanzania.