General

House Sparrow: Medium-sized, stocky sparrow with black-streaked brown upperparts and pale gray underparts. Wings are brown with single white bar. Cheeks and crown are pale gray, contrasting with black throat, upper breast, and bill. Legs are shorter and black bill is thicker than in native sparrows. Nonbreeding male shows less black on throat and breast. Female lacks black and is pale gray-brown overall with buff eyebrows; bill is pale. Juvenile resembles female. An urban species introduced from Europe.

Range and Habitat

House Sparrow: Native to Britain, northern Scandinavia, and northern Siberia to northern Africa, Arabia, India, and Burma. Introduced and established worldwide except in Antarctica; resident throughout temperate North America. Preferred habitats include cities, towns, and agricultural areas.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"cheep-cheep-cheep"

Interesting Facts

 The Old Testament Bible associates the symbol of the sparrow with loneliness.and solitude, while the New Testament views it as a sign of insignificance. Poor House Sparrow.

 In Japan the sparrow is traditionally a symbol of loyalty, perhaps because of its socialable nature and how it it gets along in large numbers.

 These birds return to their birthplace after every migration (a characteristic known as philopatric). Because of this, local populations have adapted to the color of their habitat resulting in 15 distinct subspecies in the West.

 A group of house sparrows are collectively known as a "blight", "humiliation", and "subdivision" of sparrows.

Author

Gary Owen Dick