Italian Sparrow

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Italian Sparrow
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Passeridae
Genus: Passer
Species: P. italiae
Binomial name
Passer italiae
(Vieillot, 1817)
Italian Sparrow chick resting in a tree
Italian Sparrow chick resting in a tree

The Italian Sparrow (Passer italiae) is found in Italy (except Sardinia), and adjoining regions of southeasternmost France (including Corsica), southern Switzerland, southwesternmost Austria, and western Slovenia.[1]

Its taxonomic status remains uncertain. It has been variously regarded as a stable hybrid between House Sparrow and Spanish Sparrow,[2][1] or as a subspecies of either House Sparrow[3] or Spanish Sparrow.[4] Most recently, Töpfer (2006) argues that it is a non-hybrid taxon, and that it and Spanish Sparrow are conspecific.[5]

Italian Sparrows in northern and central Italy and Corsica are stable in appearance, with the males having a similar plumage pattern to a male House Sparrow, except with a red-brown (not grey) crown, and white (not pale grey) cheeks, both features of Spanish Sparrow. At the northernmost edge of its range in the southern Alps, there is a narrow hybrid zone about 20 km wide with House Sparrow. Further south in southern Italy (Rome southwards), there is an increasing trend towards Spanish Sparrow in appearance, with increasing black markings on the flanks and back; birds in eastern Sicily are very similar to pure Spanish Sparrow, and those in western Sicily, Sardinia, and Malta being pure Spanish Sparrow.[3][4][6] Birds apparently identical to Italian Sparrows also occur on Crete.[6]

A more complex situation occurs in parts of coastal northern Africa, particularly northeastern Algeria, Tunisia, and northwestern Libya, where a highly variable mixed, interbreeding population of House Sparrows and Spanish Sparrows occurs; birds show a full range of characters from pure House Sparrows to pure Spanish Sparrows and everything between.[3][6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hagemeijer, W. J. M., & Blair, M. J., eds. (1997). The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds. Poyser, London ISBN 0-85661-091-7.
  2. ^ Stephan, B. (1986). Die Evolutionstheorie und der taxonomische Status des Italiensperlings. Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berl. 62 (Suppl.): Ann. Ornithol. 10: 25-68.
  3. ^ a b c Snow, D. W. & Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic Concise Edition. OUP ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
  4. ^ a b Summers-Smith, J. D. (1988). The Sparrows. Poyser, London ISBN 0-85661-048-8.
  5. ^ Töpfer, T. (2006). The taxonomic status of the Italian Sparrow – Passer italiae (Vieillot, 1817): Speciation by stabilised hybridisation? A critical analysis Zootaxa 1325: 117–145.
  6. ^ a b c Summers-Smith, J. D. (1992). In Search of Sparrows. Poyser, London ISBN 0-85661-073-9.

[edit] External links

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