Rock Sparrow
| Rock Sparrow | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In Ariege, Midi-Pyrenee, France | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Suborder: | Passeri |
| Infraorder: | Passerida |
| Superfamily: | Passeroidea |
| Family: | Passeridae |
| Genus: | Petronia |
| Species: | P. petronia |
| Binomial name | |
| Petronia petronia (Linnaeus, 1766) | |
- The term rock sparrow can also be used to refer to the genus Petronia as whole
The Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia) is a small passerine bird. This sparrow breeds on barren rocky hills from the Iberian peninsula and western north Africa across southern Europe and through central Asia. It is largely resident in the west of its range, but Asian birds migrate to more southerly areas, or move down the mountains.
It is a rare vagrant north of its breeding range. There is just a single record from Great Britain, at Cley, Norfolk on 14 June 1981.
This gregarious bird is also found in human settlements in suitable country. It nests in crevices in rocks or walls, laying 3–7 eggs.
This species is a large stocky sparrow, 15–17 cm in length, with a strong whitish supercilium and weaker crown stripe. It has a patterned brown back and wings, streaked underparts, and a diagnostic, but hard-to-see, yellow throat spot.
The Rock Sparrow's food is mainly seeds with some insects. This bird has a loud wheezy song.
The phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al.; it seems to be a parental species to the family Passeridae.[2][3]
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Petronia petronia". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ↑ Allende, Luis M.; Rubio, Isabel; Ruíz-del-Valle, Valentin; Guillén, Jesus; Martínez-Laso, Jorge; Lowy, Ernesto; Varela, Pilar; Zamora, Jorge; Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio (2001). "The Old World sparrows (genus Passer) phylogeography and their relative abundance of nuclear mtDNA pseudogenes" (PDF). Journal of Molecular Evolution 53 (2): 144–154. PMID 11479685. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011.
- ↑ Arnaiz-Villena, A; Gómez-Prieto P, Ruiz-de-Valle V (2009). "Phylogeography of finches and sparrows". Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60741-844--3.
- Faun. Abh. 26: 63.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Petronia petronia. |
- Rock Sparrow at Madeira Birds
- Photos at Oiseaux
- Ageing and sexing by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze (PDF; 1.1 MB)