Old World Sparrows (Passeridae)

Swahili Sparrow (Passer suahelicus) - HBW 14, p. 803

French: Moineau swahili German: Suahelisperling Spanish: Gorrión Swahili

Taxonomy: Passer griseus suahelicus Reichenow, 1904, Bussissi, Mwanza district, northern Tanzania.
Forms a superspecies with P. griseus, P. swainsonii, P. gongonensis 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 morphologic.. View all taxonomy...

Distribution: S Kenya and N Tanzania S, patchily, to SW Tanzania.