Marcel birdlife photography

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.

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.

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.

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

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Switzerland. The ssp malaccensis I found in Singapore, Bali and Borneo

The chestnut sparrow is located between Uganda/Kenya and Tanzania. There is no subspecies known.

I could find the species in Tanzania. The fist sight was in the Tarangire NP. I could find more birds between the national park and Arusha.