House Sparrow
passer domesticus
Passeridae · Old World Sparrows
- Disc 2 · 2001 listed
- Disc 3 · 2006 listed
- Disc 1 · 2011 listed
The account
Description
15 cm. The familiar 'pardal' associated with human habitations.
Male has crown, cheeks and nape grey, bib and area around the eye black, becoming dark chestnut behind eye and down the hind neck. Small white spot behind eye. Chestnut mantle boldly streaked buff and black. White wingbars formed by tips of lesser coverts. Back and rump gray-brown. Tail dark brown above, underside grey. The black bib is most pronounced in fresh plumage.
The female is dull brown above with darker stripes on back, a buff eyestripe and grayish-brown underparts.
The juveniles are like females, but the upperparts are buffy and the underparts browner. Indication of grey throat in juv. males and white throat in juv. females obvious.
-
Male Disc 3 · 2006 -
Female Disc 3 · 2006
Each plate is labelled with the disc's own caption.
Where it was recorded
The discs' own checklists select House Sparrow at 15 localities.
- Fazenda Campininha FZSB
- Fazenda Paraiso PASB
- Ilha do Cardoso ILSB
- Ilha São Sebastião SSSB
- Itirapina ITSB
- Jureia-Peruibe JUSB position not recoverable
- Marica MRRB
- Parati PARB
- PE Carlos Botelho PCSB
- Reserva Ecológica Guapiacú RERB
- Rio de Janeiro RIRB
- Santa Barbara do Rio Pardo SNSB
- Serra da Cantareira SRSB
- Serra dos Orgãos SRRB
- Serra dos Tucanos SDTC
How the map was made
The original program computed each red dot at display time from the locality's coordinates, using its map library and one of five base maps drawn for the screen widths of the day. That library's projection — an oblique rotation of the sphere about the map's own centre, 23.7°S 47.4°W — was read from the program and checked against the graticule the same program drew into the base maps: it reproduces every grid intersection to within about a pixel. The dots here use that projection on the 1280-pixel base map, with the coordinates the discs record. Nothing was placed by hand, no modern map data was used, and a place whose coordinate is incomplete, out of range or beyond the map's edge is listed rather than guessed.
The discs carried location maps only; none shows a distribution or range.
The account, continued
Voice
The chirping 'chirrup' or 'chirp' calls are the basic communication calls and are heard at any time of the day. It seems to be predominantly a nest ownership proclamation call (148). Less commonly heard are 'dee' and 'quer' calls which are also repeated as 'quer-quer-quer...' (vocalization # 2) or 'quer-it', 'it-quer' , 'tui...tui' etc. Alarm call is a high pitched 'chree' (148), and a fast "tetetetetete...".
Behavior
Occurs in flocks of varying sizes involved in various activities such as communal roosting, feeding, dust bathing etc. around human habitations; forages on ground, roofs, trees etc. (148). Noisy and aggressive. Rufous-collared Sparrows disappear, where House Sparrows arrive (133).
Breeding
Where common tends to breed in small colonies up to 20 pairs. Although pairs seem to form for life, enzymatic analysis shows a significant level of promiscuity in England (148). March-October (148).
Habitat and status
Close to human habitations, streets, parks, waste land and other open areas close in or adjacent to villages and towns, fazendas. Often found far away from human habitations. Common.
Distribution
Throughout, was introduced into Rio de Janeiro in 1905 and as early as 1872 into Buenos Aires, Argentina (148).
Decoded from the disc's own bytes. Each part is shown under the heading the disc files it under, and the wording, spelling and punctuation are the author's.
Vocalizations
-
calls, April 28, 2005. Brookline, MA. USA. 18°C, light rain.
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Calls, November 7, 2001, Cava Grande near Timoteo, MG, urban environment.
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Calls, October 21, 2001. Rio de Janeiro city, Copacabana, city park.
Recording files on the disc
- 8640.mp3 calls, April 28, 2005. Brookline, MA. USA. 18°C, light rain.
- 4717.mp3 Calls, November 7, 2001, Cava Grande near Timoteo, MG, urban environment.
- 12063.mp3 Calls, October 21, 2001. Rio de Janeiro city, Copacabana, city park.
Across the three discs
The work was published on three discs — Disc 2 in 2001, Disc 3 in 2006 and Disc 1 in 2011. Where they differ, that is a difference between historical releases, and it is never merged away. The 2011 disc is not treated as correcting the earlier ones.
Which discs list this bird
- Disc 2 · 2001 — in this disc's bird list
- Disc 3 · 2006 — in this disc's bird list
- Disc 1 · 2011 — in this disc's bird list
How that was established
- Disc 2 · 2001
aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1- Disc 3 · 2006
aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1- Disc 1 · 2011
aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1
The disc's own record fields that place the bird on its list: a non-empty entry in the species table, and the byte that marks it as selected on a local checklist.
The account in the Disc 1 · 2011 revision
In the 2011 Disc 1 revision, part of this account was truncated at exactly 512 bytes (a 2011 mastering defect). The earlier releases preserve the complete text.
Truncated sections in the 2011 revision: description. The complete earlier text is shown beneath each truncated section.
Description Disc 1 · 2011
15 cm. The familiar 'pardal' associated with human habitations.
Male has crown, cheeks and nape grey, bib and area around the eye black, becoming dark chestnut behind eye and down the hind neck. Small white spot behind eye. Chestnut mantle boldly streaked buff and black. White wingbars formed by tips of lesser coverts. Back and rump gray-brown. Tail dark brown above, underside grey. The black bib is most pronounced in fresh plumage.
The female is dull brown above with darker stripes on back, a buff eyes
Disc 1 (2011) text ends here — truncated at exactly 512 bytes in the 2011 mastering (historical defect, kept as recovered).
Complete earlier text — Disc 3 · 2006 (208 bytes lost in 2011)
15 cm. The familiar 'pardal' associated with human habitations.
Male has crown, cheeks and nape grey, bib and area around the eye black, becoming dark chestnut behind eye and down the hind neck. Small white spot behind eye. Chestnut mantle boldly streaked buff and black. White wingbars formed by tips of lesser coverts. Back and rump gray-brown. Tail dark brown above, underside grey. The black bib is most pronounced in fresh plumage.
The female is dull brown above with darker stripes on back, a buff eyestripe and grayish-brown underparts.
The juveniles are like females, but the upperparts are buffy and the underparts browner. Indication of grey throat in juv. males and white throat in juv. females obvious.
Shown for comparison from the Disc 3 · 2006; it does not repair or replace the Disc 1 · 2011 historical text above.
Voice Disc 1 · 2011
The chirping 'chirrup' or 'chirp' calls are the basic communication calls and are heard at any time of the day. It seems to be predominantly a nest ownership proclamation call (148). Less commonly heard are 'dee' and 'quer' calls which are also repeated as 'quer-quer-quer...' (vocalization # 2) or 'quer-it', 'it-quer' , 'tui...tui' etc. Alarm call is a high pitched 'chree' (148), and a fast "tetetetetete...".
Behavior Disc 1 · 2011
Occurs in flocks of varying sizes involved in various activities such as communal roosting, feeding, dust bathing etc. around human habitations; forages on ground, roofs, trees etc. (148). Noisy and aggressive. Rufous-collared Sparrows disappear, where House Sparrows arrive (133).
Breeding Disc 1 · 2011
Where common tends to breed in small colonies up to 20 pairs. Although pairs seem to form for life, enzymatic analysis shows a significant level of promiscuity in England (148). March-October (148).
Habitat and status Disc 1 · 2011
Close to human habitations, streets, parks, waste land and other open areas close in or adjacent to villages and towns, fazendas. Often found far away from human habitations. Common.
Distribution Disc 1 · 2011
Throughout, was introduced into Rio de Janeiro in 1905 and as early as 1872 into Buenos Aires, Argentina (148).
The work's own taxonomy
The discs carried three parallel name schemes. All three are shown as recovered; none is a modern taxonomy and none has been updated.
| Scheme | Scientific name | English name | Family |
|---|---|---|---|
| WORLD | passer domesticus | House Sparrow | Passeridae |
| CLEMENTS | passer domesticus | House Sparrow | Passeridae |
| AOU_HM | passer domesticus | House Sparrow | Passeridae |
Source details
- Identifier on this site
- seb_species_0340
- Account identifier
- seb_account_0340
- Account number on the disc
- 340
- Source edition
- CD03 / 2006 package
- Original taxonomy scheme
- WORLD
- Structure status
- heuristic; decoded_account_text and segment JSON remain authoritative