Aron Tanti

Spanish Sparrows are found in trees and scrub in cultivated areas, mostly near water but also more arid habitats, normally in lowlands (Summers-Smith 2020). They occur from the Mediterranean basin (S Europe, N Africa, Levant, Asia Minor) E to C Asia (NW China) (Keller et al. 2020) and are an intra-European/Mediterranean migrant, with populations being variously nomadic, resident (SW Europe, Sardinia, N Africa) or migratory (most of the Balkan Peninsula). European migratory populations overwinter largely in N Africa (Summers-Smith 2020).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		7560000-20000000,12000000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Spanish Sparrow

General movement of migratory populations roughly follows N-S axis, most birds migrate short to intermediate distances. Birds breeding in E Balkan Peninsula migrate through S Greece & the Levant and NE Africa (Egypt) during late autumn. A tracking study of breeding birds in Bulgaria showed they overwintered in the Nile Delta and used stopover sites in W Turkey (Hahn et al. 2019). Cyprus is also a stopover site with recoveries of birds marked in S Israel. Birds breeding in Croatia take S-SW routes, with encounters in S Italy during migration. Trans-Mediterranean movements have been confirmed between Tunisia and N Italy (Spina & Volponi 2008). The Iberian Peninsula population is considered resident and locally dispersive/nomadic, data exist for within-region movements only.

Recoveries by Condition for Spanish Sparrow

The majority of recoveries are in SW (36%) & SC Europe (61%) with most (ca. 40%) occuring in Apr-Jun and the remainder almost equally distributed throughout the rest of the year. Almost all recoveries (ca. 99%) occured since 1991 and are of recaptured birds. There are hardly any pre-1961 recoveries, but there are several historical recoveries of shot birds - mostly from 1961-1990 in S Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. There are very few recoveries from the African winter quarters.

Annual Movements for Spanish Sparrow

In migratory populations marked autumn migration occurs in Sep-Oct. Birds breeding on the Balkan Peninsula are found in Oct in S Greece and S Italy, the wintering sites in Egypt are reached in Oct-Nov. A tracking study revealed an 1,800 km migration from Bulgaria to the species’ wintering grounds in Egypt, with 12-hr nonstop flights across the Mediterranean (ca. 640km; Hahn et al. 2019). Some birds marked in Tunisia in May and Jul are found in N Italy in Sep-Dec. Winter records in the northern part of the breeding range involve mostly adult birds. Migrating flocks have been recorded in Malta in spring and autumn (Apr and Oct; Sultana 2009). Spring migration records (Apr) from Levant involve birds breeding on the Balkan Peninsula. Migratory populations reach their breeding sites late Mar-May.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Spanish Sparrow

Post-breeding dispersal movements in search of food can be of several hundred km (Summers-Smith 2020). Birds from the E Balkan Peninsula breeding population are encountered during migration in S Greece (mid-autumn), reaching the wintering grounds in Africa in mid- to late autumn. Limited numbers of birds irregularly overwinter in Bulgaria (Ivanov & Nankinov 1980). W Balkan Peninsula birds are found in S Italy mostly in spring, but also in mid-autumn. Birds wintering in S Israel have been encountered during (mostly mid-autumn) migration in Cyprus. Birds in Tunisia in late spring and mid-summer are found in N Italy during autumn and even winter (Spina & Volponi 2008). There is migration through Malta and S Italy in mid- to late spring and mid-autumn. Populations in Portugal (Equipa Atlas 2018) and Spain undertake nomadic movements with no clear pattern.

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
Equipa Atlas 2018 . Atlas das Aves Invernantes e Migradoras de Portugal 2011-2013. Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, LabOr- Laboratório de Ornitologia – ICAAM - Universidade de Évora, Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza (Madeira) et al., Lisboa
Hahn, S., Dimitrov, D., Emmenegger, T., Ilieva, M., Peev, S., Zehtindjiev, P., Briedis, M. 2019 . Migration, wing morphometry and wing moult in Spanish and House Sparrows from the eastern Balkan Peninsula. J. Ornithol. 160: 271–274
Ivanov, B., Nankinov, D. 1980 . intering and breeding biology of the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) in Bulgaria. Ekologiya 7: 56–60
Spina, F., Volponi, S. 2008 . Atlante della Migrazione degli Uccelli in Italia. 2. Passeriformi. Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, Instituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Tipografia SCR-Roma
Sultana, J. 2009 . Spanish Sparrow apparently migrating through the Maltese Islands. British Birds 102: 602–602
Summers-Smith, D. 2020 . Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.spaspa1.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA

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