House Sparrow ( Passer domesticus, family: Passeridae)

house sparrow kruger national park birds The House Sparrow (Latin name Passer domesticus) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 801 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 1082 also a picture of the House Sparrow on page 1009. The House Sparrow belongs to the family of birds classified as Passeridae.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the House Sparrow was called the

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The House Sparrow is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park.

In terms of distribution of the House Sparrow in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. House Sparrow : see above distribution map.

Kruger Park House SparrowIdentification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The House Sparrow is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the House Sparrow is about 15 cms and its weight is about 26 gms

You will find that the male House Sparrow plumage and colours are different to that of the female House Sparrow

  • Head is grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is brown.
  • Throat is white.
  • Back is grey, brown.
  • Legs are pink.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The House Sparrow feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Fruits

Seeds

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The House Sparrow takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of House Sparrow is to create the nest in a hole in a tree trunk. The bird lays eggs which are white in colour and number between 1 to 6

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

You will normally see the House Sparrow in pairs or flocks and not as single birds.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Huismossie

German ... Haussperling

Portuguese ... Pardal-dos-telhados

French ... Moineau domestique

Dutch ... Huismus

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 801

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za