Sparrows and Sky

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Nests are made in the branches of thorny trees, and are untidy globular masses constructed from grass or other plant matter and lined with softer material. Both sexes are involved in building the nest and caring for the young, and usually raise two clutches of three to five young each breeding season. The Sind sparrow is very similar to the house sparrow , and both sexes resemble their counterparts of that species, but it is slightly smaller and males and females each have features that distinguish them as Sind sparrows.

Wingspans range from 6.

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The breeding male has a short and narrow black bib and a broad chestnut eye stripe that does not meet the mantle. The female has a darker and greyer crown and cheek than the female house sparrow and the shoulder is darker chestnut. With a culmen length of 1. The Sind sparrow's chirping chup call is softer, less strident, and higher pitched than that of the house sparrow, and is easily distinguished.

The Sind sparrow was first formally described by Edward Blyth , from a specimen collected by Alexander Burnes at Bahawalpur in around Jerdon contained similar errors. Stuart Baker suggested the English name rufous-backed sparrow , but as this name might cause confusion with other species, Ticehurst suggested the name Sind jungle-sparrow , which became the accepted name for the species.

This name refers to Sindh , a province now in Pakistan which makes up a large part of the Sind sparrow's range, and the jungle habitat of the bird in the word's original sense of tangled dry thicket. The Sind sparrow is a member of the genus Passer , which contains the house sparrow and around twenty other species.

Denis Summers-Smith considered the Sind sparrow to be part of the " Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrow" group including the house sparrow, though not one with a particularly close relationship with the house sparrow. Summer-Smith suggested that these species separated 25, to 15, years ago, during the last glacial period , when sparrows would have been isolated in ice-free refugia , such as the Indus River Delta , where he thought the Sind sparrow evolved.

Kirwan in a study. The Sind sparrow has a restricted distribution, primarily occurring within the Indus valley of Pakistan, and the lower parts of the tributaries of the Indus in the Punjab region.

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During winter, it often makes short distance movements, and some birds move into parts of western Pakistan and an adjoining corner of Iran , and less commonly north-western Gujarat , India. It mostly breeds in acacia and tamarisk scrub and tall grass, invariably near rivers or other wetlands. In winter, it moves away from its main riverine habitat, and into drier thickets characterised by Salvadora and Capparis bushes, but never moves too far from water. The Sind sparrow is gregarious, generally forming small groups of four to six birds while feeding.

It tends to breed in loose colonies of a few pairs, and non-breeding birds may gather to roost in acacias or tamarisks near water. It may also forage for insects such as caterpillars , especially to feed nestlings. Nesting occurs during a period of several months between April to September, the timing depending on rainfall, during which two clutches are raised by most pairs.

Sind sparrows build nests in the upper branches of thorny trees or the ends of thin branches hanging over water. The nest has an entrance located higher up on the sides, is somewhat flat on top, and is lined with softer plant material and feathers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sparrow species of bird found in South Asia. Archived from the original on 19 August Retrieved 18 August In the Americas , Australia , and other parts of the world, settlers imported some species which quickly naturalised, particularly in urban and degraded areas. House sparrows, for example, are now found throughout North America , Australia every state except Western Australia , parts of southern and eastern Africa, and over much of the heavily populated parts of South America.

The sparrows are generally birds of open habitats, including grasslands , deserts , and scrubland. The snowfinches and ground-sparrows are all species of high latitudes. A few species, like the Eurasian tree sparrow, inhabit open woodland. Sparrows are generally social birds, with many species breeding in loose colonies and most species occurring in flocks during the non-breeding season. The great sparrow is an exception, breeding in solitary pairs and remaining only in small family groups in the non-breeding season. Most sparrows form large roosting aggregations in the non-breeding seasons that contain only a single species in contrast to multi-species flocks that might gather for foraging.

Sites are chosen for cover and include trees, thick bushes and reed beds. The assemblages can be quite large with up to 10, house sparrows counted in one roost in Egypt. The sparrows are some of the few passerine birds that engage in dust bathing. Sparrows will first scratch a hole in the ground with their feet, then lie in it and fling dirt or sand over their bodies with flicks of their wings.

They will also bathe in water, or in dry or melting snow. Water bathing is similar to dust bathing, with the sparrow standing in shallow water and flicking water over its back with its wings, also ducking its head under the water. Both activities are social, with up to a hundred birds participating at once, and is followed by preening and sometimes group singing. Sparrows may be the most familiar of all wild birds worldwide.

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The Eurasian tree and house sparrows are particularly specialised in living around humans and inhabit cities in large numbers. Grain-eating species, in particular the house and Sudan golden sparrows, can be significant agricultural pests. Sparrows can be beneficial to humans as well, especially by eating insect pests. Attempts at the large-scale control of sparrows have failed to affect sparrow populations significantly, or have been accompanied by major increases in insect attacks probably resulting from a reduction of sparrows, as in the Great Sparrow Campaign in s China.

Because of their familiarity, the house sparrow and other sparrows are frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd. These references may not always refer specifically to sparrows, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow and other members of the family in mind.

In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite , the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. Jesus's use of "sparrows" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew [18] also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet [16] and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow. Sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, even though they are not colourful and their songs are unremarkable.

They are also difficult to keep, as pet sparrows must be raised by hand as nestlings, when considerable supplies of insects are required to feed them. Nevertheless, many are successful in hand raising orphaned or abandoned baby sparrows. Various internet forums are providing useful information on how to hand raise an injured or orphaned baby sparrow. The earliest mentions of pet sparrows are from the Romans. Not all the passeri mentioned, often as pets, in Roman literature were necessarily sparrows, but some accounts of them clearly describe their appearance and habits.

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