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My SPARROW sights:

02_house sparro_Uganda.jpg

The house sparrow is the most common sparrow on earth. I could find it all around the world. I saw the subspecies: ssp baleroibericus in Croatia, ssp biblicus in Jordan, ssp domesticus in Switzerland and Cuba and Namibia, ssp indicus in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, ssp tingitanus in Marocco.

02 house sparrow

passer domesticus

italian sparrow_ponte_tresa34.JPG

The italian sparrow is common in the south of Switzerland and in Italy. I saw it on both sides of the boarder. I found a special subspecies in Ponte Tresa, with a brown belly. Some literature list the italian sparrow as a subspecies of the spanish sparrow.

03 italian sparrow

passer italiae

04_spanish sparrow_LaGomera.jpg

The spanish sparrow is devided in two subspecies. The nominate race ssp hispaniolensis occurs from Canary Islands to Greece. The subspecies transcaspia occurs from Zyprus to the center of asia. I found this sparrow in La Gomera and Marocco.

04 spanish sparrow

passer hispaniolensis

06_somali sparrow_kenya-1.jpg

The somali sparrow is mostly found in Somali, some parts of Ethiopia and northern Kenya. I found a hybrid somali sparrow in the Samburu NP in Kenya.

further information about somali hybrids: Link to Birding Africa

06 somali sparrow

passer castanopterus

11_great sparrow.jpg

The great sparrow's habitat is around acacia trees and grassland, where it has enough seeds to eat. It is found in northern terretory of South Africa. I could find it in the Pilanesberg Nationalpark.

11 great sparrow

passer motitensis

white nile sparrow1.JPG

Like most of the rufous sparrows its habitat around acacia trees and seeds. I could find this kind in Murchison Falls NP in Uganda.

14_kenya rufous sparrow_male_kenya.jpg

Between Nairobi and Samburu, the kenya rufous sparrow is quite common in villages. It can also be seen in several nationalparks in Kenya.

14 kenya rufous sparrow

passer rufocinctus

16_cape sparrow_namibia.jpg

The cape sparrow is devided into three subspecies. The nominate  subspecies melanurus is habituated in the cape region of south africa, as the name suggests. The second subspecies vicinis is around Johannesburg and east to the coast. The third subspecies damarensis is in the north of south africa to botswana and namibia. I could find the three subspecies in 1st Cape Town and surrounding, 2nd Johannesburg and 3rd in Namibia.

16 cape sparrow

passer melanurus

17_grey-headed sparrow_uganda.jpg

The grey-headed sparrow is easy to find in Uganda. Mostly you can find it in nationalparks near resting areas, where people eat something. Just a small area in south Kenya is the area where the grey-headed and the swahili sparrow share it's place.

17 grey-headed sparrow

passer griseus

19_parrot-billed sparrow_kenya-1.jpg

The parrot-billed sparrow has a bigger bill than the other species. Its range is all over Kenya. In the rift valley the parrot-billed sparrow is common in villages and behaves like a normal house sparrow.

19 parrot-billed sparrow

passer gongonensis

20_swahili sparrow_kenya.jpg

In a small area in South Kenya around Masai Mara the swhaili sparrow occurs. I first saw it around the village inside the main gate of the Masai Mara NP. The swahili sparrow can be seperated from the other grey-headed sparrows by its small bill.

20 swahili sparrow

passer suahelicus

southern gray-headed sparrow_south afric

The southern-grey headed sparrow has again three subspecies. The nominate race ssp diffusus is spread all around South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe and the southern half of Mozambique. The subspecies mosambicus  occurs on the northern half of Mozambique as the name says and the eastern part of Tanzania. The third subspecies luangwae is a very tiny population in the west of Sambia. I just photograph the nominate race in Namibia and South Africa.

22_desert sparrow_marocco.jpg

This sparrow is located in the sahara desert from Egypt to Morocco. I could see it during a camel trekking in Marocco to the boarder to Algeria. The desert sparrow was around the acacia trees and the tamarisques. Some literature list the asian desert sparrow (passer zarudnyi) as a subspecies of the desert sparrow. I count it as a different species.

22 desert sparrow

passer simplex

23_eurasian tree sparrow_male.JPG

The eurasian tree sparrow is spread around europe and asia and it has 6 subspecies. The nominate race occurs in europe and russia. the 5 other subsecies are from the center of asia to the south-east asia up to japan. In asia the euraisan tree sparrow take place like the normal house sparrow.

I could find the nominate race in Switerland. The ssp malaccensis I found in Singapore, Bali and Borneo

23 eurasian tree sparrow

passer montanus

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