Old World Sparrows (Passeridae)

Swainson's Sparrow (Passer swainsonii) - HBW 14, p. 803

French: Moineau de Swainson German: Swainsonsperling Spanish: Gorrión de Swainson

Taxonomy: Pyrgita swainsonii Rüppell, 1840, northern Ethiopia.
Forms a superspecies with P. griseus, P. gongonensis, 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 morphologic.. View all taxonomy...

Distribution: Coastal & SE Sudan (S from Port Sudan), Eritrea, Ethiopia, N Somalia and N Kenya.