The house sparrow [has] traveled around the world with humans ever since.
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As they turned up the path, a male house sparrow appeared beneath a bush.
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A male house sparrow in Washington Square ParkBut you can't always go traveling—and migration ends.
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The image of the house sparrow had been scribbled over in red letters: " Trash ," it read. ♦
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Who isn't inspired to gluttony by seeing an English house sparrow surrounded by a gold mine's worth of greasy fries?
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Other research has also shown hot weather in breeding season reduces the size of zebra finch and house sparrow offspring.
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"Small brown bird" does not have much purchase on Google or in a library, but "house sparrow" (Passer domesticus) will open every relevant portal.
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"If the interloper is a house sparrow, which is not a native species, you can interfere if you want, but be sure you can correctly identify this species before taking action," she said.
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One of my favorite examples is the house sparrow, which originally lived on rather prairie-like vegetation in parts of Asia and seems to have become associated with humans when agriculture was developed in the Fertile Crescent.
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In Bermuda, cardinals were introduced even earlier but met with a twist of fate; outcompeted by more recent introductions such as the English house sparrow and the European starling, these birds are now relatively uncommon on the island.
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The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown. Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete. The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.
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The only land bird is the house sparrow, introduced by humans.
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The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated. The common type of "willow sparrow" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects. It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic. In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.
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Because no premaxillae were found, the bones could not be distinguished from those of the house sparrow. Tchernov argued that the house sparrow and related species have undergone considerable morphological changes in adapting to a commensal relationship with humans, with the beak becoming longer and narrower. He wrote that P. predomesticus was intermediate between the house sparrow and Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis), and suggested that it may be a primitive relative of the ancestor of the house sparrow that did not become dependent on humans. In a 1984 paper, Tchernov suggested that the period in which the house sparrow and P. predomesticus could have separated was the Würm glaciation 70,000–10,000 years ago.
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The Italian sparrow has been classified as a hybrid with the house sparrow, the same species as the Spanish sparrow, the same species as the house sparrow, and as a separate species. The Spanish sparrow also hybridises freely with house sparrow in parts of northern Africa (north-eastern Algeria, Tunisia, and north-western Libya), forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrow to pure Spanish sparrow. On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, there are more apparently intermediate birds of unknown status. Phylogenetic studies of nuclear mitochondrial DNA pseudogenes show that the house sparrow is closely related genetically to the Italian sparrow but not the Spanish sparrow.
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Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows. The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii. Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host. Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.
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To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010. Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India. To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.
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Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow. The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humans—the house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean. Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive. Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.
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Sonogram of a male Spanish sparrow's song The Spanish sparrow's vocalisations are similar to those of the house sparrow. The male gives a call somewhat different from that of the house sparrow when displaying at its nest. This call is a pair of strident, disyllabic chirps, similar to those of the house sparrow, but louder and high-pitched, transcribed as '. A similar call, softer and more like the house sparrow's ', is used by birds arriving or departing at roosting sites.
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These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.
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The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from . The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head. Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds. Its tail is short, at long.
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In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds. The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries. In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring. Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.
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The upperparts are dark-streaked reddish brown, and the underparts are grey-white. The female looks like a small house sparrow, with a streaked brown back, greyish head and buff-white underparts. She is paler and smaller billed than the house sparrow, and sometimes shows yellow on the neck sides. The eastern subspecies P. m.
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Summers-Smith began his study of the house sparrow in 1947. He decided to make a serious study of a particular bird species, and chose the house sparrow because of the difficulty of travel at the time, under post-war rationing. Summers-Smith has studied the house sparrow in Highclere, Hampshire; in Hartburn, County Durham; and latterly at Guisborough in North Yorkshire, where he settled in 1961. During these studies, he was questioned by a policeman on the street twice for looking around yards with binoculars at early hours.
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A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare. House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas. The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows. In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.
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The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill; on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.
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Hopping movements of a house sparrow The house sparrow's flight is direct (not undulating) and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second. On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks. It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators. Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.
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The Italian sparrow is about the same size as the house sparrow at in length. The tail is , the tarsus , and wing lengths for males are . The Italian sparrow's weight varies seasonally from in the winter to in the summer. The vocalisations of the Italian sparrow are similar to those of both the Spanish sparrow and the house sparrow.
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With a culmen length of , the Sind sparrow is slightly smaller-billed than the house sparrow. The Sind sparrow's chirping chup call is softer, less strident, and higher pitched than that of the house sparrow, and is easily distinguished. The song of breeding males includes chirrups interspersed with grating t-r-r-rt notes and short warbles or whistles.
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However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed. The house sparrow has long been used as a food item. From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware "sparrow pots" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested. Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.
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Similarly, the house sparrow sometimes occurs as a winter visitor in northern Italy. Besides intergrading with the Spanish and house sparrows, the Italian sparrow has been recorded hybridising with the Eurasian tree sparrow. The eggs of the Italian sparrow do not seem to differ from those of the house sparrow. Broods may contain two to eight eggs, with an average of about 5.2.
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Female house sparrow feeding a fledgling House Sparrow song and calls recorded at Cowley, Gloucestershire, England World Sparrow Day is a day designated to raise awareness of the house sparrow and then other common birds to urban environments, and of threats to their populations, observed on 20 March. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world. The Nature Forever Society was started by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian conservationist who started his work helping the house sparrow in Nashik, and who was named one of the "Heroes of the Environment" for 2008 by Time for his efforts. The idea of marking World Sparrow Day came up during an informal discussion at the Nature Forever Society's office.
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The wing chord is , and the tarsus is . Wingspan ranges from . In mass, the house sparrow ranges from . Females usually are slightly smaller than males.
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An illustration by John Gould of a male Spanish sparrow (above) and an Italian sparrow pair The Spanish sparrow is a close relative of the house sparrow in the genus Passer and the sparrow family Passeridae. Its taxonomy is greatly complicated by the "biological mix-up" it forms with the house sparrow in the Mediterranean. In most of the Mediterranean, one or both of the two species occurs, with only a limited degree of hybridisation. On the Italian Peninsula and Corsica, the two species are replaced by the Italian sparrow, a puzzling type of sparrow apparently intermediate between the Spanish sparrow and the house sparrow.
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It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries. In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow. Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as "random, or even capricious". In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.
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During the Games in 1950 he lived at Hume House, Sparrow Hill, Loughborough and was a company director and was a member of the Loughborough Boat Club.
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Summers-Smith was a founding member of his local bird club (The Teesmouth Bird Club) in 1960, and he wrote the instructions for the British Trust for Ornithology's first Common Bird Census in 1962. His study of the house sparrow resulted not only in a number of papers in respected journals, but also in his 1963 monograph The House Sparrow, published as part of the New Naturalist Monographs series. After The House Sparrow was published, Summers-Smith began studying the house sparrow's relatives in the genus Passer. Over the course of these studies, he visited dozens of countries, and made observations on all the Passer species (recognised in his classification) except the Socotra sparrow.
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To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd. One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants. Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia. These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.
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Ixodes arboricola, also called the tree-hole tick, is a species of tick that parasitises small passerine birds. It is among the most common species on the house sparrow.
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Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently. In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions. The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red. In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.
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The Sind sparrow (Passer pyrrhonotus) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family, Passeridae, found around the Indus valley region in South Asia. It is also known as the jungle, Sind jungle, or rufous-backed sparrow. Very similar to the related house sparrow, it is smaller and has distinguishing plumage features. As in the house sparrow, the male has brighter plumage than female and young birds, including black markings and a grey crown.
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Most of the time, when these two species collide, the house finch outcompetes the purple finch. This bird has also been displaced from some habitat by the introduced house sparrow.
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A juvenile house sparrow by the Hudson River Zooplankton are abundant throughout the fresh and saltwater portions of the river, and provide a crucial food source for larval and juvenile fish.
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Markus found that the fossil species was closest to living house sparrows from Palestine and to the great sparrow (P. motitensis), and proposed that the house sparrow evolved in Africa. In a 1977 account of the evolution of the house sparrow, American zoologists Richard F. Johnston and William J. Klitz considered that the house sparrow evolved with the beginning of agriculture, dating any fossils that could even be assigned to the common ancestor of the house and Spanish sparrows as more recent than P. predomesticus. In his 1988 work The Sparrows, British ornithologist J. Denis Summers-Smith considered that P. predomesticus was roughly contemporary with the common ancestor of the house and Spanish sparrows and that all present-day Palaearctic Passer species evolved later.
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The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.
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The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation. It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans. The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra. Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.
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In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet. Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails; oblong and rough grains are preferred. Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%. It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers oats and wheat.
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The idea was to earmark a day for the house sparrow to convey the message of conservation of the house sparrow and other common birds and also mark a day of celebration to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity which is taken so much for granted. The first World Sparrow Day was celebrated in 2010 in different parts of the world. The day was celebrated by carrying out different various kinds of activities and events like art competitions, awareness campaigns, and sparrow processions as well as interactions with media. World Sparrow Day also has a broader vision to provide a platform where people who are working on the conservation of the house sparrow and other common birds can network, collaborate and exchange conservation ideas which will lead to better science and improved results.
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The Italian sparrow (Passer italiae), also known as the cisalpine sparrow, is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean region. In appearance, it is intermediate between the house sparrow, and the Spanish sparrow, a species of the Mediterranean and Central Asia closely related to the house sparrow. The Italian sparrow occurs in northern Italy and neighbouring regions, with intermediates with the house sparrow in a very narrow contact zone in the Alps, a slow gradation in appearance from the Italian to Spanish sparrows across central and southern Italy, and more birds of intermediate appearance in Malta, Crete, and other parts of the Mediterranean. There has been much debate on the origins and taxonomic status of the Italian sparrow, especially given its possible hybrid origin.
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The Sind sparrow is a member of the genus Passer, which contains the house sparrow and around twenty other species. In a 1936 review of the house sparrow's relatives, German ornithologist Wilhelm Meise suggested that the Sind sparrow evolved from an isolated population of house sparrows, noting that the Indus valley is a centre of small bird types. British ornithologist J. Denis Summers-Smith considered the Sind sparrow to be part of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrow" group including the house sparrow, though not one with a particularly close relationship with the house sparrow. Summer-Smith suggested that these species separated 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the last glacial period, when sparrows would have been isolated in ice-free refugia, such as the Indus River Delta, where he thought the Sind sparrow evolved.
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The Réunion fody reached roughly the size of a house sparrow. The head, neck, throat and the wing underparts of the breeding male were bright red. Back and tail were brown. The belly was pale.
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Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals. Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds. In most of the world, the house sparrow is not protected by law. Attempts to control house sparrows include the trapping, poisoning, or shooting of adults; the destruction of their nests and eggs; or less directly, blocking nest holes and scaring off sparrows with noise, glue, or porcupine wire.
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The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed. House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii. In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P. d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P. d.
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Citizen Sparrow is a public participatory project in which all members of the public are encouraged to contribute information on presence and absence of the house sparrow. This project is motivated by the observation that house sparrows have declined in many parts of India, while in a few other parts their numbers are reported to be stable. Citizen Sparrow project provides a website where registered members can upload observations of presence and absence of house sparrow from different locations and for different time period. All the observational records are plotted on a map.
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Female in the Canary Islands The Spanish sparrow is a rather large sparrow, at in length, and in weight. It is slightly larger and heavier than house sparrows, and also has a slightly longer and stouter bill. The male is similar to the house sparrow in plumage, but differs in that its underparts are heavily streaked with black, has a chestnut rather than grey crown, and has white rather than grey cheeks. The female is effectively inseparable from the house sparrow in its basic plumage, which is grey-brown overall but more boldly marked.
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The chromosomes of Italian sparrows are distinct from those of the house sparrow, but mitochondrial DNA suggest a close relation to the house sparrow. A DNA analysis by Jo Hermansen, Glenn-Peter Sætre, and a group of other scientists from Norway published in Molecular Ecology in 2011 indicates that the Italian sparrow originated as a hybrid between house and Spanish sparrows. It has mitochondrial DNA from both parent species. Additionally, it is now breeding beside the Spanish sparrow without cross-breeding in areas where the species both occur.
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Exotic birds, including rock pigeons, European goldfinch, house sparrow, starlings and blackbirds are common. Introduced bees and European wasps are present, with the aggressive wasps an issue for the park's visitors.Department for Environment and Heritage (2006), p. 14.
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Drawing on more recent studies of molecular data, Ted R. Anderson stated in his 2006 Biology of the Ubiquitous House Sparrow that all Passer species have a long evolutionary history, with speciation possibly occurring as early as the Miocene.
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The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes. At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.
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When ready to mate, the female crouches in solicitation and is mounted by the male. Instances of hybridisation with the house sparrow, the southern grey-headed sparrow, and captives or escapees of the Sudan golden sparrow have been reported.
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The Spanish sparrow's other calls are almost the same as those of the house sparrow. A soft ' is given at the nest by mated pairs, a ' flight call is given by flocking birds, and a ' call is given as a threat.
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The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years. The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.
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Nesbitt (2011) provided a roughly equivalent definition, using Marasuchus and Passer domesticus (the house sparrow, a representative of dinosaurs). In his analysis, Dinosauriformes included dinosaurs, silesaurids, and Marasuchus, but not lagerpetids, which were considered a more primitive family of dinosauromorphs.
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Diagram of the skull of a house sparrow seen from below, with the premaxilla (marked pmx) at top Premaxillae, the only bones from which Passer predomesticus is known, are generally relatively easy to identify to species in birds. Tchernov found that the two premaxillae of P. predomesticus most closely resembled the house and Spanish sparrows, but were distinct from either. In P. predomesticus, there is a central, longitudinal groove with raised margins running along the lower (ventral) side of the premaxilla. In contrast, the house and Spanish sparrows have a narrow crest in this position, which is more prominent in the house sparrow.
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Summers-Smith studied this decline extensively, but he called it "one of the most remarkable wildlife mysteries of the last fifty years". When The Independent offered a £5,000 prize for an explanation of the decline of the house sparrow in 2000, Summers-Smith acted as a referee. In 2008, the prize was almost awarded to Dr. Kate Vincent of De Montfort University and several colleagues, who attributed the decline of the house sparrow to falling insect numbers. In 2009, Summers-Smith was the author of the section of the Handbook of the Birds of the World on the family Passeridae.
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The Cuban martin nests in cavities in banks and buildings, or old woodpecker holes. 3-6 eggs are laid in the lined nest, and incubated for 15 days, with another 26-27 to fledging. Just as the purple martin, this species may compete with other passerines for nesting cavities. In particular, the main foe is the house sparrow Steven Kroenke, House Sparrow Revenge Syndrome , November 11, 1999, The Purple Martin Forum Archives in urban areas, where they mostly use man-made structures, whereas in more rural locations Picidae holes in coconut trees are favored, and there is less competition with the sparrows.
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Avian malaria parasites have been found in the blood of many populations, and birds in China were found to harbour a strain of H5N1 that was highly virulent to chickens. The immune response of Eurasian tree sparrows is less robust than that of the house sparrow and has been proposed as a factor in the greater invasive potential of the latter. The house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow are the most frequent victims of roadkill on the roads of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The maximum recorded age is 13.1 years, but three years is a typical lifespan.
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The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica. Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.
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Illustration of a pair by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1888 The Sind sparrow is very similar to the house sparrow, and both sexes resemble their counterparts of that species, but it is slightly smaller and males and females each have features that distinguish them as Sind sparrows. The Sind sparrow is long, while the common South Asian subspecies of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus indicus, is long. Wingspans range from , tails from , and tarsi measure . The breeding male has a short and narrow black bib and a broad chestnut eye stripe that does not meet the mantle.
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It may in fact be more closely related to the house sparrow and Spanish sparrow. In Cape Verde it occurs on all but one island, and on most of them it is quite common. The Iago sparrow occurs in most of the habitats that are available in its range, such as lava plains, rocky hills, and gorges; however, the house sparrow and Spanish sparrow are typically present instead in denser settlements and richer cultivated areas respectively. Because the Iago sparrow is not under any serious threats, it is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
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The pet passer of Lesbia in Catullus's poems may not have been a sparrow, but a thrush or European goldfinch. John Skelton's The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe is a lament for a pet house sparrow belonging to a Jane Scrope, narrated by Scrope.
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Introduced birds such as the house sparrow, common myna and feral pigeon are ubiquitous in the CBD areas of Sydney.Hindwood, K. A. and McCill, A. R., 1958. The Birds of Sydney (Cumberland Plain) New South Wales. Roy. Zool. Soc. New South Wales.
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Introduced species include the red fox, European rabbit, and feral cat. While introduced birds include the song thrush, common blackbird, common myna, common starling, house sparrow, spotted turtle dove, rock pigeon, and mallard. Common carp have also been introduced to the river.
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The acute oral LD50 for Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) is 31 mg a.i./kg bw with a NOAEL = 3.1 mg a.i./kg. The acute oral LD50 for house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is 41 mg a.i./kg bw with a NOAEL = 3 mg a.i.
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Some species, such as the brown rat, house sparrow, ring-necked pheasant, and European starling, have been introduced very widely. In addition there are some agricultural and pet species that frequently become feral; these include rabbits, dogs, ducks, goats, fish, pigs, and cats.
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Panthera Leo or Centaurea Cyanus. When used with a common name, the scientific name often follows in parentheses, although this varies with publication. For example, "The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is decreasing in Europe." The binomial name should generally be written in full.
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The ten most common breeding bird species at Lake Constance according to a 2000–2003 survey in descending order are the: blackbird, chaffinch, house sparrow, great tit, blackcap, starling, robin, chiffchaff, greenfinch, and blue tit.Aufgelistet. Die 10 häufigsten Brutvögelarten… In: Südkurier. 22 October 2010.
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As he continued to study bats, his interest shifted from circadian rhythms to hibernation patterns. When Menaker joined faculty at University of Texas at Austin in 1962, he transitioned to studying circadian rhythms in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus).
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This research into the sparrows as a whole resulted in a monograph on the genus Passer, published in 1988 as The Sparrows, and one on the Eurasian tree sparrow, the 1995 The Tree Sparrow, both of which were illustrated by Robert Gillmor. He also wrote In Search of Sparrows, an account of his worldwide travels researching sparrows. In 1992, Summers-Smith received the Zoological Society of London's Stamford Raffles Award, for his "world-renowned work on sparrows". In The House Sparrow, Summers-Smith predicted that the house sparrow would have "a bright future", but instead it went into a severe decline in many parts of the world, beginning in the 1970s.
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A male calling in San Francisco Short chirps of a house sparrow, Hyderabad, India Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call. Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing. In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an "ecstatic call" similar to a song. Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.
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The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate. Male house sparrows guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites. Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females. Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.
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Belonging to the landed gentry, she worked as an honorary consulting entomologist with the Royal Agricultural Society of England and received no pay for any of her work. She also promoted the use of paris green as an insecticide and called for the extermination of the house sparrow.
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A European robin-sized bird, the dunnock typically measures in length. It possesses a streaked back, somewhat resembling a small house sparrow. Like that species, the dunnock has a drab appearance which may have evolved to avoid predation. It is brownish underneath, and has a fine pointed bill.
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The sparrow on exhibit in the Natural History Museum Rotterdam The Domino Day 2005 house sparrow, generally known as the domino sparrow () was a house sparrow, Passer domesticus, that was shot and killed by a hunter from the company Duke Faunabeheer in the Frisian Expo Centre in Leeuwarden, Netherlands during preparations for Domino Day 2005 on 14 November 2005. With only four days to go until Domino Day 2005, the bird flew into the building and landed on several domino bricks, eventually causing 23,000 of them (out of 4 million) to fall. Because of the protective gaps that were placed between groups of bricks, the damage was limited. Faunabeheer was hired to remove the unwanted intruder from the centre.
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The house sparrow is a victim of interspecific brood parasites, but only rarely, since it usually uses nests in holes too small for parasites to enter, and it feeds its young foods unsuitable for young parasites. In turn, the house sparrow has once been recorded as a brood parasite of the American cliff swallow. A juvenile, showing its pink bill and obvious nestling gape—the soft, swollen base, which becomes harder and less swollen as the bird matures The eggs are white, bluish white, or greenish white, spotted with brown or grey. Subelliptical in shape, they range from in length and in width, have an average mass of , and an average surface area of .
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Within its limited US range of about , the Eurasian tree sparrow has to compete with the house sparrow in urban centres, and is therefore mainly found in parks, farms and rural woods. The American population is sometimes referred to as the "German sparrow", to distinguish it from both the native American tree sparrow species and the much more widespread "English" house sparrow. Urban nest under a roof tile of a wooden house in Japan In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is present in Melbourne, towns in central and northern Victoria and some centres in the Riverina region of New South Wales. It is a prohibited species in Western Australia, where it often arrives on ships from Southeast Asia.
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Despite its scientific name, Passer montanus, this is not typically a mountain species, and reaches only in Switzerland, although it has bred at in the northern Caucasus and as high as in Nepal. In Europe, it is frequently found on coasts with cliffs, in empty buildings, in pollarded willows along slow water courses, or in open countryside with small isolated patches of woodland. The Eurasian tree sparrow shows a strong preference for nest-sites near wetland habitats, and avoids breeding on intensively managed mixed farmland. When the Eurasian tree sparrow and the larger house sparrow occur in the same area, the house sparrow generally breeds in urban areas while the smaller Eurasian tree sparrow nests in the countryside.
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The Latin word passer, like the English word "sparrow", is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed. The Latin word domesticus means "belonging to the house", like the common name a reference to its association with humans. The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America; and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England; spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England; spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland; and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.
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A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains Female foraging in Germany Two females feeding on leftover food at a cafe in New Zealand. As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available. In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs. It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.
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The Nature Forever Society proposed to the Delhi government that the house sparrow be declared the state bird of Delhi. At a campaign "Rise for the Sparrows" aimed at conserving the species, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit declared the sparrow as the “state bird” of Delhi on August 14, 2012.
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The bird species in the park sometimes have been known to feed in the Mexico City metropolitan area due to its proximity to the park. The main bird species observed in the park are: house sparrow, barn swallow, lark, chalk-browed mockingbird, woodpecker, blue jay, black vulture, and golden eagle.
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The European greenfinch is long with a wingspan of . It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back. The bill is thick and conical.
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It has a population density of 58 to 160 pairs per square kilometer. Up to the mid-1990s, its population increased steadily, probably due to increased urbanisation. Between 2000 and 2005, the Italian sparrow's population in Italy declined by 27.1 percent, mirroring the declines of the house sparrow throughout Europe.
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Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, NSW. The endemic flora is home to a variety of bird, insect, reptile and mammal species, which are conspicuous in urban areas. Introduced birds such as the house sparrow, common myna and feral pigeon are ubiquitous in the CBD areas of Sydney.Hindwood, K. A. and McCill, A. R., 1958.
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Here the diet was led by the house sparrow (25.9% by number, 22.6% biomass) and secondarily the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus).Zalewski, A. (1994). Diet of urban and suburban Tawny owls. Journal of Raptor Research, 28(4), 246-252. In Warsaw, birds were dominant in the city, at 73% of the food.
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Edith Carrington (1853 – 1929) was a prominent English animal rights activist and promoter of vegetarianism. She was for sometime an artist, but began to write books on animals from 1889. She was a vocal opponent of Eleanor Anne Ormerod's campaign seeking the extermination of the house sparrow and was an anti-vivisectionist.
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Because of their familiarity, the house sparrow and other species of the family are frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd. Birds usually described later as Old World sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia. These references may not always refer specifically to Old World sparrows, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow and other members of the family in mind. In particular, Old World sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.
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As is the case with other medium-sized owls in Europe, there is some evidence that local snow cover, arid habitats and/or urbanization will increase the importance of avian prey. There was a fairly strong indication of local urban habitat causing the tawny owl to take a large quantity of bird prey in Grunewald. Here, among 13,359 prey items, bird constituted 35.9% with primary prey of this group being house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and European greenfinch (Chloris chloris) and that avian prey was more reliable and productive in the area than rodent prey due to the cyclic populations of the latter. Elsewhere in Germany, in the Pankow borough of Berlin, the house sparrow was also the most regular prey species, at 19.2% of 1912 prey items.
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The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species. This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the "Dominomus", was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record. These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost. Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks; electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones; and diseases such as avian malaria.
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The saxaul sparrow's species name refers to its desert habitat, coming from the name of the Ammodendron or sand acacia tree, which is in turn derived from the Ancient Greek άμμος (ammos, "sand") and δένδρον (dendron, "tree"). The English name saxaul sparrow refers to the saxaul plant, with which it is closely associated. The saxaul sparrow usually is classified in the genus Passer with the house sparrow and around twenty other species, although a genus Ammopasser was created for the saxaul sparrow by Nikolai Zarudny in 1890. The saxaul sparrow's relations within the genus Passer are unclear, although with its black throat feathering it has usually been considered part of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrow" group related to the house sparrow.
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A secretary of the Philoperisteron Society, he was the first to organize pigeon races. He also took an interest in the use of mules in the army. Tegetmeier considered himself a practical and economically minded naturalist. Along with Eleanor Ormerod, he considered the house sparrow to be a pest and supported measures for its control.
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Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans. They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago. The Turkestan subspecies (P. d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.
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It winters in scrub or cultivation. This is a dunnock-sized bird, 13.5–14 cm in length. It has a streaked dark brown back, somewhat resembling a house sparrow, but adults have a black crown, face patch and throat, and a white supercilium. The breast is orange, and the belly white with orange stripes.
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The saxaul sparrow's vocalisations are little reported. Its common call is a chirp, transcribed as cheerp cheerp, softer and more melodious than that of the house sparrow. It gives a flight call transcribed as twerp, and a song described by Russian naturalist V. N. Shnitnikov as "not loud, but pleasantly melodious with fairly diversified intonations".
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However, most often it occurs in human settlements and their surroundings. In Eritrea, it lives mostly on the open plateau at an altitude of above sea level, and in Ethiopia it occurs in areas of above sea level. In Ethiopian towns it is the common sparrow, similarly to the house sparrow in most of Eurasia.
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Leader, Z., Yom-Tov, Y., & Motro, U. (2010). Diet comparison between two sympatric owls—Tyto alba and Asio otus—in the Negev Desert, Israel. Israel Journal of Ecology and Evolution, 56(2), 207-216. In Egypt, 24.6% of prey items were birds including house sparrow (15.4%) and European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) (2.4%).Handwerk, J. (1990).
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The passerines contain several groups of brood parasites such as the viduas, cuckoo-finches, and the cowbirds. Most passerines are omnivorous, while the shrikes are carnivorous. The terms "passerine" and "Passeriformes" are derived from the scientific name of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus, and ultimately from the Latin term passer, which refers to sparrows and similar small birds.
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Common bird species include the Common Myna, Rock Dove, White-Cheeked Bulbul, Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Dove and House Sparrow. Other notable species are falcons, terns, wagtails, hoopoes, herons, larks, gulls, eagles and sandpipers. On the offshore territory of Halul Island, at least 38 species of seabirds have been observed. Fuwayrit is an important site for birds.
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Nilsson corresponded with William Yarrell, acting as the authority on Swedish avifauna for Yarrell's History of British Birds (1843). For example, Yarrell records Nilsson as saying "it infests every house", referring to the house sparrow. A genus of turtles, Nilssonia, was named in honor of Nilsson by John Edward Gray in 1872.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011).
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In Victoria in 2005, a pair of chestnut-rumped heathwren was encountered with a juvenile shining bronze- cuckoo which imitated the alarm call of a baby heathwren. The introduced house sparrow and song thrush have been recorded as hosts in New Zealand. In New Caledonia, the fan-tailed gerygone (Gerygone flavolateralis) is the sole host of the species.
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From Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in East Sikkim, India. This is a robin-sized bird at 15–17.5 cm in length, slightly larger than its relative, the dunnock. It has a streaked brown back, somewhat resembling a house sparrow, but adults have a grey head and red-brown spotting on the underparts. It has an insectivore's fine pointed bill.
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Several invasive bird species are found in urban areas. The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) was originally distributed in the Middle East to the Mediterranean region, and was introduced in 1850 in North America. It competes for food and nesting sites with other species. The rock dove (Columba livia) is native to Europe and has been introduced worldwide.
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In 2007, Island Conservation Society established a conservation center on Alphonse to manage conservation on the island and on neighboring St. François. Wedge-tailed shearwaters breed despite the presence of rats and cats. The common waxbill (probably introduced) breeds and is found nowhere else in Seychelles other than Mahe and La Digue. The introduced house sparrow also breeds.
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At least 248 species were originally described in this genus. For instance, the house sparrow has 12 species of Isospora. However, most species are little studied, and some authors doubt whether all should be recognized as distinct species. In 2005, all former Isospora species that infect mammalian hosts were reclassified as members of the genus Cystoisospora, a member of the Sarcocystidae family.
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The house sparrow is a very social bird. It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds. It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps. House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and "social singing", in which birds call together in bushes.
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In most of its range, the Italian sparrow is an abundant and familiar bird of houses. It has been one of the wild birds most commonly consumed as food in Italy. Portrayals of the Italian sparrow or one of its relatives have been found at Pompeii. Like the house sparrow, the Italian sparrow is considered a biological indicator of pollution.
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It differs from the house sparrow in its slightly darker, russet-tinged plumage. It has a conspicuous cream supercilium from above its eye nearly around its head, and a bold dark brown stripe through its eye. It has mostly greyish brown wings and a back streaked with black and buff. The juvenile is similar to the female, though more pale and sandy.
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The russet sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer, and within this genus it is seen as a part of the "Palearctic black-bibbed sparrow" group, which includes the Eurasian tree sparrow as well as the house sparrow. It has generally been seen as a close relation of the house sparrow, and Richard Meinertzhagen even considered it to be the same species as the Somali sparrow, one of the house sparrow's closest relatives. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA indicate that the russet sparrow is an early offshoot or basal species among the Palearctic black-bibbed sparrows. While mitochrondrial DNA suggests speciation in Passer occurred during the Miocene and Pliocene, British ornithologist J. Denis Summers-Smith estimated that the russet sparrow separated from the other Palearctic black-bibbed sparrows about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.
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Species seen: yellow-vented bulbul, Palestine sunbird, Indian house crow, house sparrow and white wagtail, Sinai rosefinch, Lichtenstein's sandgrouse, houbara bustard, saker falcon, kingfisher, swallows, griffon vulture, great white pelican, common crane. Oddie: > "It has always rather puzzled me that when it comes to music, Israel is in > Europe – they have even won the Eurovision Song Contest! But what about when > it comes to birds?" .
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Instead, the family may represent an evolutionary grade of small archosauriforms (making it paraphyletic) or a group of species that each evolved small body sizes through evolutionary convergence (making it polyphyletic). However, other studies consider the family valid, albeit difficult to diagnose. Euparkeriidae is defined as the most inclusive clade containing Euparkeria capensis but not Crocodylus niloticus (the nile crocodile) or Passer domesticus (the house sparrow).
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The Java sparrow is about in length from the beak to its tip of tail feathers. Although only about the size of a house sparrow, it may be the largest species in the estrildid family. The adult is unmistakable, with its grey upperparts and breast, pink belly, white-cheeked black head, red eye- ring, pink feet and thick red bill. Both sexes are similar.
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Because of its mild winters for its latitude, Great Britain hosts important numbers of many wintering species, particularly waders, ducks, geese and swans. Retrieved on 16 February 2009. Other well known bird species include the golden eagle, grey heron, common kingfisher, common wood pigeon, house sparrow, European robin, grey partridge, and various species of crow, finch, gull, auk, grouse, owl and falcon. Retrieved on 16 February 2009.
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The range of many birds is expected to shift, generally increasing in latitude. A 2012 study noted that "climate change forces species to move, adapt or die." That study examined house sparrows, and concluded that young were travelling further from their parents nests in response to warming temperatures. The house sparrow was thus moving its range in response to climate change to escape its effects.
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Citizen Sparrow is an ongoing citizen science project in India in which members of the public are encouraged to contribute information on presence and absence of the house sparrow. It is organised by Bombay Natural History Society and Ministry of Environment and Forests (India) in partnership with the National Centre for Biological Sciences and Nature Conservation Foundation. Several other Indian Non Governmental Organisations collaborate with this project.
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The Spanish sparrow or willow sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is found in the Mediterranean region and south-west and central Asia. It is very similar to the closely related house sparrow, and the two species show their close relation in a "biological mix-up" of hybridisation in the Mediterranean region, which complicates the taxonomy of this species.
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Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals. Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent. It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest. It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.
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The Iago sparrow is a small sparrow, long, with a wing length of . Its plumage is similar to that of the house sparrow, and it similarly is sexually dimorphic. The male has a black or greyish-black crown and eyestripe, a grey nape and a small patch of white on the lower forehead. The sides of its head, especially above the eye, are a rich cinnamon colour.
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Blue Heron The invasive species found in Hawthorne Park are the Eastern Grey Squirrel and the House Sparrow. The Eastern Gray Squirrel has a strong impact on the ecosystem. They are a highly invasive species and can be found throughout British Columbia, including Hawthorne Park. They compete with native squirrels for food and habitat, which results in the native squirrels becoming threatened or endangered.
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They were first brought to Canada in 1914 when eight of the squirrels were released into Stanley Park, Vancouver. The House Sparrow spends its time hunting other bird’s nests and eggs. It competes with other native birds for food and shelter, pushing the native animals out of their habitat. House sparrows were brought to Stanley Park, British Columbia in 1898, and later on migrated to Hawthorne Park.
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The village indigobird is 11–12 cm in length. The adult male is entirely greenish-black or bluish-black except for his orange-red legs and conical white bill. The female resembles a female house sparrow, with streaked brown upperparts, buff underparts, a whitish supercilium and a yellowish bill, although she also has red legs. Immature birds are like the female but plainer and without a supercilium.
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The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are paler on the belly. The song is a pleasant babbling. Compared to that of the icterine it is more fluent and sustained but much less varied, and it does not include mimicked sounds. Other vocalisations include a rattling "trrrr", which resembles a house sparrow, a quiet "tuk" and a chattering "chret-chet".
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Common Woodpigeon is common throughout Europe. Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variation in size, ranging in length from , and in weight from to above . The largest species is the crowned pigeon of New Guinea, which is nearly turkey-sized, at a weight of . The smallest is the New World ground dove of the genus Columbina, which is the same size as a house sparrow, weighing as little as .
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Common cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), a plant with fluffy white plumes native to wet hollows on high moors, was announced as the county flower of Greater Manchester. The house sparrow, starling, and blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county. The South Pennines support internationally important numbers of golden plover, curlew, merlin and twite.
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One of the sculptures in 2011 The work depicts one male and one female house sparrow, each between tall, or approximately life size. The birds have been described as realistic and "massive yet friendly-looking". Their bodies are made from hard coated expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, coated with a polyurea skin and airbrush painted, all clad around a steel armature. Their cast bronze legs were sealed with wax.
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At long it is one of the smaller species of its family, some shorter than the widespread house sparrow. Like most of its relatives, it is sexually dimorphic with males being more brightly and distinctively marked than females. The male Dead Sea sparrow has a grey crown, rear neck and cheeks, and a small black bib. It has a pale supercilium shading to buff at the rear, and yellow neck sides.
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Sayers, pp. 50–51, 55. As of 2010, the Pennsylvania Game Commission allowed hunting of the following species found in Quehanna Wild Area: American crow, beaver, black bear, black squirrel, bobcat, bobwhite quail, cottontail rabbit, coyote, elk, house sparrow, raccoon, red fox, ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse, white- tailed deer, wild turkey, and woodcock. The Mosquito Creek Sportsmen's Association has sponsored an annual coyote hunt each winter hunt since 1992.
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There are about 250 bird species regularly recorded in Great Britain, and another 350 that occur with varying degrees of rarity. The most numerous species are wren, robin, house sparrow, woodpigeon, chaffinch and blackbird. Farmland birds are declining in number, except for those kept for game such as pheasant, red-legged partridge, and red grouse. Fish are abundant in the rivers and lakes, in particular salmon, trout, perch and pike.
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The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced. This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions. Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow. Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.
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In 1958, he joined the Zoology Department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence and became curator of its Natural History Museum. His research interests included the house sparrow (English sparrow) P. domesticus and the feral pigeon C. livia. He was awarded the title of professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His outside interests included searching for mushrooms, tending to his small vineyard, and making wine.
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The male has a black patch on its throat and chest, known as a bib or badge. This patch, like much of the male's plumage is dull in fresh non-breeding plumage and is brightened by wear and preening. The female is nearly identical to the female house sparrow, but it differs from the female Spanish sparrow in its lack of black streaks on the underparts. Albinism is occasionally recorded.
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Its vocalisations carry better in natural environments than those of the house sparrow. The male gives a chreep call like that of the Spanish sparrow to proclaim nest ownership, and a faster version of this as part of courtship display. Male song patterns grade slowly into those of the Spanish sparrow across southern Italy, but in the area of overlap between the house and Italian sparrows, the two birds sound alike.
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A survey by birdwatchers completed in 2000 found the Cape sparrow increasing in abundance in some suburban areas of South Africa (the northern Johannesburg area, and Pietermaritzburg) and decreasing in others (the southern Cape Town area). The house sparrow was reported decreasing in several urban areas, as it has in parts of Europe, declines which are attributed to factors including the increasing density of garden plantings and increases in predation.
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The russet sparrow (Passer cinnamomeus), also called the cinnamon or cinnamon tree sparrow, is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. A chunky little seed-eating bird with a thick bill, it has a body length of . Its plumage is mainly warm rufous above and grey below. It exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the plumage of both sexes patterned similarly to that of the corresponding sex of house sparrow.
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Its tail is blackish brown, edged with ashy brown. The non- breeding male differs little from the breeding male, being paler with more orange upperparts. The only species with which the male is easily confused is the Eurasian tree sparrow, which differs in its black cheek spot and brown back. The female has mostly pale brown upperparts, and pale grey underparts, so it resembles the female house sparrow.
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Tyrannoraptora is a clade defined as "all descendants of the last common ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex and Passer domesticus (the house sparrow)". The clade was named in 1999 by the American paleontologist Paul Sereno, though in his original concept had Tyrannosauroidea being the sister taxa to Pennaraptora. Phylogenetic analyses have since, however, found the group also encompasses Compsognathidae, Ornithomimosauria, Alvarezsauroidea, and Therizinosauria. Thus tyrannoraptorans are divided into tyrannosauroids and maniraptoromorphs.
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Under this definition, Dinosauromorpha included all reptiles closer to dinosaurs (represented by Passer domesticus, the house sparrow), rather than pterosaurs (represented by Pterodactylus), ornithosuchids (represented by Ornithosuchus), or other pseudosuchians (represented by Crocodylus niloticus, the Nile crocodile). Nesbitt's study supported the hypothesis that Pterosauromorpha (pterosaurs and their potential relatives) was the sister group of Dinosauromorpha. Pterosauromorphs and dinosauromorphs together formed the group Ornithodira, which encompasses almost all avemetatarsalians.
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House sparrow, Passer domesticus The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to birds: Birds (class Aves) – winged, bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), egg-laying, vertebrate animals. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most varied of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic, to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich.
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The density of the photoreceptors is critical in determining the maximum attainable visual acuity. Humans have about 200,000 receptors per mm2, but the house sparrow has 400,000 and the common buzzard 1,000,000. The photoreceptors are not all individually connected to the optic nerve, and the ratio of nerve ganglia to receptors is important in determining resolution. This is very high for birds; the white wagtail has 100,000 ganglion cells to 120,000 photoreceptors.
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Cat eating a house sparrow. Raccoon and skunk eating cat food in a Hollywood back yard Aside from simple agricultural environments, water transfer has created a unique southern California urban area. The relatively low urban population density encouraged by automobile mobility features edge effect habitats including a broad range of landscaping plants. Omnivores able to cross streets, roads, and freeways thrive in this spatially fragmented habitat with dry season water available from landscape irrigation.
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Columbidae, Corvidae, house sparrow, European starling and gulls fly between isolated habitat segments, while raccoons, opossums, skunks and rats travel under bridges and through culverts and storm drains. Animals killed during unsuccessful crossing attempts are a food source for scavengers also seeking garbage or food intended for pets or wild birds and squirrels. Domestic cats and dogs kill small animals for recreation and have established feral predator populations. Coyotes prey on these smaller predators.
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In his early scientific career, Eskin studied circadian rhythms in the house sparrow, while working in chronobiologist Michael Menaker's lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Eskin's most cited paper while in Menaker's lab concerns his research of non-ocular entraining cues in house sparrows. In it, Eskin and Menaker showed the scientific community the ability of house sparrows to entrain to auditory cues as opposed to previously shown light cues.
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It is also readily observed in gardens and ruderal areas on the island's coast; in 1881, Finsch described the species as abundant, calling it "as common as the House-Sparrow in England." Biologist Donald Buden again found it widespread on the island in 2008. The species is sedentary, meaning that the birds do not naturally leave Nauru. Banaba is the nearest island, and despite being similar to Nauru, it lacks any warblers.
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In their gardens, the locals grow roses, hyacinths, tulips, local peonies, and petunia, as well as grapevines and Virginia creepers for shade. The wild fauna in Buzău is made up of city- dwelling species. The house sparrow and the collared dove are ubiquitous, and the most present small mammals are the wild polecat and the brown rat. Lakes are populated with small fish, such as bitterlings and eel, as well as snails and green lizards.
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Methyl nitrite free of nitromethane can be made by reacting iodomethane with nitrogen dioxide: :2 \+ 2 → 2 \+ This compound is produced by the combustion of unleaded petrol, and might be a cause of the decline of insects, and hence that of the house sparrow and other songbirds in Europe. Methyl nitrite is also present in aged cigarette smoke. Here it is presumably formed from nitrous oxide (itself formed by autoxidation of nitric oxide) and methanol.
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Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) (the national bird), whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and Arctic tern (Sterna paradisea) are common on the heather hills. The Faroese starling (Sturnus vulgaris ssp. faroeensis) is the biggest starling in the world, and is very common in and around human habitation together with house sparrow (Passer domesticus). In later years starlings they have been joined by blackbirds (Turdus merula), which are growing very fast in numbers.
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The rock sparrow is similar in size to a house sparrow but with a larger more conical bill. It is around in length, with a strong whitish supercilium and weaker crown stripe. It has a patterned brown back and wings, streaked underparts, and a diagnostic, but hard-to-see, yellow throat spot. Petronia petronia are monochromatic, with a distinctive yellow patch on their upper breast that starkly contrasts the earth tones of their plumage.
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The Australian hobby has been recorded preying on avian species including the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) and silvereye (Zosterops lateralis). Research suggests they tend to avoid large, dangerous, or agile species that forage close to cover, such as the common myna (Acridotheres tristis). Insectivorous bats and insects including beetles, cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers also form part of the hobby's diet.Olsen, J., Fuentes, E., Rose, A. B. & Trost.
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In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 45–65%. After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced. Only about 20–25% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season. The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades; it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.
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The eastern subspecies P. m. dilutus reaches coastal Pakistan in winter and thousands of birds of this race move through eastern China in autumn. The Eurasian tree sparrow has been introduced outside its native range, but has not always become established, possibly due to competition with the house sparrow. It was introduced successfully to Sardinia, eastern Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia, but introductions to New Zealand and Bermuda did not take root.
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In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom. The god Odin had two ravens, called Hugin and Munin, who flew around the world and told Odin what happened among mortal men. The legendary king of Sweden Dag the Wise was so wise that he could understand what birds said. He had a tame house sparrow which flew around and brought back news to him.
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Although it hybridises with the house sparrow in a sparsely populated contact zone in the Alps, the contact zone is characterized by relatively abrupt changes in species-specific male plumage, suggesting that partial reproductive isolation based on plumage may also have developed between these two taxa. As a genetically distinct group that is reproductively isolated from the parental species, it must be recognised as a separate species, according to Hermansen and colleagues.
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Eggs from the collection of the Muséum de Toulouse A fresco at Pompeii depicting an Italian sparrow or a relative The Italian sparrow's behaviour is similar in many ways to that of the house sparrow. It is a social bird, which feeds mostly on seeds and insects. It is mostly sedentary, but it wanders to some extent outside its breeding season. These wanderings are mostly local, but they may extend into southern France.
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The scapulars are white and brown, while the rest of the upperparts are brown, streaked with black and beige. The cheeks and underparts are pale grey, and the throat and chin are marked with a small black bib. The female is grey-brown, with black-streaked wings and breast, and pale grey underparts. It is very similar to the female house sparrow but has a more apparent pale supercilium (stripe over the eye).
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The rufous songlark is medium brown passerine songbird with a pattern of streaks on its feathers. Encyclopædia Britannica describes this bird as "drab and vaguely larklike". It has a dark line through its eye, a pale eyebrow and pale underparts, and a rufous upper tail and rump. A little larger than a house sparrow, the male grows to about 19 cm in length and is larger than the female who reaches only about 16 cm.
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Dermanyssus gallinae, a parasite of the common starling The hen flea (Ceratophyllus gallinae) is the most common flea in their nests.Rothschild & Clay (1953) pp. 84–85. The small, pale house-sparrow flea C. fringillae, is also occasionally found there and probably arises from the habit of its main host of taking over the nests of other species. This flea does not occur in the US, even on house sparrows.Rothschild & Clay (1953) p. 115.
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34–39, 113–115. As an International Bird Area, Quehanna's forests are recognized as a "large, unfragmented tract with exceptional diversity of woodland species" and are home to 102 species of birds. Common birds include American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, broad-winged hawk, common raven, hermit thrush, house sparrow, northern waterthrush, starling, whip-poor-will, and wild turkey. Quehanna Wild Area includes a variety of forest, riparian, and wetland habitats that support a diversity of animals.
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Industrial farming of chickens Since birds are highly visible and common animals, humans have had a relationship with them since the dawn of man. Sometimes, these relationships are mutualistic, like the cooperative honey-gathering among honeyguides and African peoples such as the Borana. Other times, they may be commensal, as when species such as the house sparrow have benefited from human activities. Several bird species have become commercially significant agricultural pests, and some pose an aviation hazard.
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The taxonomic status of the Italian sparrow has been a matter of debate. It has been variously regarded as a stable hybrid between the house sparrow and Spanish sparrow, or as a subspecies of either the house or Spanish sparrow. Many authorities, including the Handbook of the Birds of the World, recognise it as a separate species, if only for convenience. Others, including many conservation groups, consider the Italian sparrow a simple hybrid and ignore it.
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The Bonin white-eye was described by Heinrich von Kittlitz in 1830 based on specimens collected on Chichijima in the Bonin Islands. Kittlitz placed the species in the bulbul (family Pycnonotidae) genus Ixos. He gave the species the specific name familiare from the Latin for familiar or friendly, as the species was the first bird that visitors would encounter, much like the house sparrow in Europe. In 1854 Charles Lucien Bonaparte moved it to its own genus, Apalopteron.
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Albinism has been reported in all orders and in 54 families of North American birds. The American robin and house sparrow led bird species in the incidence of albinism. Albinistic white appears to replace brown pigments more often than red or yellow ones; records suggest a greater incidence in crows, ravens, and hawks than in goldfinches or orioles. Several kinds of albinism in chickens has been described: A complete albinism controlled by an autosomal recessive gene and two different kinds of partial albinism.
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The adult male has a yellow head and upper breast during the breeding season, with a pale grey belly and light and brown wings with white wing-tips. The male has distinctive red eye-rings and silver bill extending with a 'V' shape into the forehead. The non-breeding male has a dark brown head and pale grey breast, flanked with white. The female has the appearance more of a house sparrow with pale almost white breast and duller slightly pink bill.
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Common winter (October-March) visitors: barn swallow, red-breasted flycatcher, inornate warbler. Species which are seen there less often (but all year round): striated heron, Javan pond-heron, little egret, painted stork, house swift, common iora, common tailorbird, yellow-vented bulbul, red- whiskered bulbul, house sparrow. Less common winter visitors: Chinese pond- heron, ashy drongo, brown shrike, Asian paradise-flycatcher. In the wasteland on which the park was later constructed, white-breasted waterhen, black-capped kingfisher, and verditer flycatcher were also recorded.
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Other avemetatarsalians include the flying pterosaurs, small bipedal lagerpetids, herbivorous silesaurids, and the incredibly diverse dinosaurs, which survive to the present day in the form of birds. Aphanosauria is formally defined as the most inclusive clade containing Teleocrater rhadinus and Yarasuchus deccanensis but not Passer domesticus (House sparrow) or Crocodylus niloticus (Nile crocodile). This group was first recognized during the description of Teleocrater. Although only known by a few genera, Aphanosaurs had a widespread distribution across Pangaea in the Middle Triassic.
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In 1968, Menaker provided evidence for the existence of extra-retinal photoreceptors that were sufficient for photoentrainment by measuring rhythmic locomotor behavior as the output signal of the house sparrows (Passer domesticus) circadian clock. He demonstrated that photoentrainment could occur in the absence of optic neurons, evidence for the presence of an extra-retinal photoreceptor(s) coupled to the House Sparrow circadian clock.Bellingham, James, and Russell G. Foster. Opsins and mammalian photoentrainment. Cell and Tissue Research 309.1 (2002): 57-71.
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After 17 years in local and tabloid journalism, he moved first to The Times, then to The Independent on Sunday, and then to The Independent; he worked 27 years for those broadsheet newspapers. He was Environment Editor of The Independent until 2013, and is its Environment Columnist. He was the driving force behind a campaign by The Independent to identify the reasons for the decline of the British urban House sparrow; but the £5,000 prize offered by that newspaper has not been awarded.
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Corresponding to its variegated topography and climate, the state has a wealth of animal life. Its avifauna is among the richest in the country. Animals that can be found in the jungles of Uttar Pradesh include the tiger, leopard, wild bear, sloth bear, chital, sambhar, jackal, porcupine, jungle cat, hare, squirrel, monitor lizards, and fox. The most common birds include the crow, pigeon, dove, jungle fowl, black partridge, house sparrow, peafowl, blue jay, parakeet, kite, mynah, quail, bulbul, kingfisher and woodpecker.
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Studies in Britain showed that birds are a major predator in British town and city environments (such as in gardens) while arthropods had larger influence in rural areas. Bird predators include the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) and skylark (Alauda arvensis). Caterpillars are cryptic, coloured as green as the host plant leaves and they rest on the undersides of the leaves, thus making them less visible to predators. Unlike the large white, they are not distasteful to predators like birds.
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Distinctively, the male has a chestnut stripe running down its head behind the eye, and the female has a darker head than other sparrow species. Its main vocalisations are soft chirping calls that are extended into longer songs with other sounds interspersed by breeding males. Historically, this species was thought to be very closely related to the house sparrow, but its closest evolutionary affinities may lie elsewhere. The species was discovered around 1840, but went undetected for several decades afterwards.
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A stray individual of this North Pacific auk was observed and photographed between November 12–18, 1996. The rare Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) is again increasing in numbers and may occasionally range as far north as Seneca County. The introduced house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is common since at least the late 19th century. The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), another species introduced from Europe, never seems to have become really plentiful, though it has been a breeding resident since at least 1901.
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A habitat survey of the Moston Brook corridor was conducted by The Greater Manchester Ecology Unit in 2007. Important habitats identified include lowland broad leaved woodland, marshy grassland, reed bed and lowland heath/acid grassland, all of which are priority habitats for conservation listed in the national and Greater Manchester Biodiversity Action Plans. Important species identified included song thrush, house sparrow, starling, snipe and kestrel. The Moston Brook corridor is bookended by two important sites designated for their nature conservation area.
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The federal government has historically promoted the introduction and widespread distribution of species that became invasive, including multiflora rose, kudzu, and others for numerous reasons. Before the 20th century, numerous species were imported and released without government oversight, such as the gypsy moth and house sparrow. Over 50% of flora recognized as invasive or noxious weeds were deliberately introduced to the United States, by either government policy or individuals.The United States Naturalized Flora: Largely the Product of Deliberate Introductions Richard N. Mack and Marianne Erneberg.
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Migratory birds in Vadakkechira The pond is a four hectare ecosystem complete with plants, birds, sacred groves and butterfly gardens. Vadakkechira is home to many avian species, including small green barbet (Megalaima viridis), white-breasted water hen (Amaurornis phoenicurus), blue rock pigeon (Columba livia), bronze-winged jacana (Metopidius indicus), pond heron (Ardeola grayii), white-browed wagtail(Motacilla maderaspatensis), common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), common myna (Acridotheres tristis), little cormorant (Microcarbo niger), lesser whistling teal (Dendrocygna javanica) and little grebe (Podiceps ruficollis).
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A nest in an acacia hedge in Es Sénia, Algeria In most of its range, the Spanish sparrow occurs alongside the house sparrow. In such areas, both species breed in farmland and open woodland, with the Spanish sparrow preferring moister habitats. In areas where house sparrows are absent, the Spanish sparrow may live in urban habitats, as in the Canary Islands, Madeira, and some Mediterranean islands. In a few urban areas, such as those in eastern Sardinia, the primary sparrow species is the Eurasian tree sparrow.
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Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.
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The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer. Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or "cuter", as with the Dead Sea sparrow. The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows. The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.
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However, this trend may be superficial, and the Handbook of the Birds of the World recognises birds from Sicily and Crete as Italian sparrows. Male in Crete Sardinia is occupied by Spanish sparrows, while sparrows on Malta, Crete, and the adjacent islands are intermediates similar to the Italian sparrow. On Malta, sparrows resemble the Spanish sparrow, with urban birds behaving much like the house sparrow, and rural birds like the Spanish sparrow. The situation is complicated by house and Spanish sparrows which winter and migrate on Malta.
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The male has a grey crown and nape and a rufous lower back and rump. The female has a darker and greyer crown and cheek than the female house sparrow and the shoulder is darker chestnut. The female Dead Sea sparrow of the subspecies Passer moabiticus yattii is also similar to the female Sind sparrow, but has yellow tinges on the underparts and sometimes on parts of the head. The bill is black on the breeding male and pale brown on the non-breeding male and female.
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Ornithologist J. Denis Summers-Smith observed a display in which the male hopped beside the female in a tree, drooping its wings and ruffling the chestnut-coloured feathers on its back. Groups of two or more males have been observed chasing a female. In the house sparrow a similar display exists, in which a female who is not ready to copulate is chased by her mate, who is joined by other males. It is not known if the display in the Cape sparrow has a similar significance.
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Within Coelurosauria exists a slightly less inclusive clade named Tyrannoraptora. This clade was defined by Sereno (1999) as "Tyrannosaurus rex, Passer domesticus (the house sparrow), their last common ancestor, and all of its descendants". As tyrannosauroids are considered to be the most basal large group within Coelurosauria, this means that the common ancestor of tyrannosauroids and birds was an even more basal coelurosaurian. As a result, almost all coelurosaurians are also tyrannoraptorans, with the only exceptions being particularly basal species such as Zuolong salleei or Sciurumimus albersdoerferi.
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Régime alimentaire de la Chevêche d'Athena Athene noctua, de l'Effraie des clochers Tyto alba, du Hibou moyen-duc Asio otus et du Grand-duc ascalaphe Bubo ascalaphus: réserve naturelle de Mergueb (Algérie). Alauda, 78(2), 103-117. For wintering owls in the city of Jerusalem, 90.7% of the diet (150 prey items) were small birds, led by house sparrow (22%) and the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) (16.7%). Further study of the long-eared owl's diet in Israel's Negev desert showed that 28.3% of 3062 prey items were birds.
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Pseudopodoces is somewhat similar in appearance to the unrelated ground jays (Podoces) but much smaller - about the size of a house sparrow (Passer domesticus) - and lacks any conspicuous markings. More strongly however, it resembles a wheatear (Oenanthe) in habitus, but lacks black feathers and has a strong and slightly downcurved bill resembling that of a chough (Pyrrhocorax) in shape (though not in colour). Its soft, lax body plumage is extremely cryptic in its natural habitat. The underside is a greyish-fawn in colour, with a tawny hue.
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Northern shrikes often sit on tall poles and branches surveying for food. They prey on arthropods such as spiders, beetles, bugs, and grasshoppers, and small vertebrates. Prey identified include passerine birds such as horned lark, black-capped chickadee, common starling, brewer's sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, dark-eyed junco, pine siskin, house sparrow, small mammals such as the vagrant shrew, western harvest mouse, deer mouse, long-tailed vole, meadow vole and house mouse, and reptiles such as spiny lizards. They have been observed hunting finches and house sparrows at bird feeders.
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Male house sparrow in Germany Yellow-throated sparrow at Keoladeo National Park, India Sparrow in Tharparkar, Sindh Generally, Old World sparrows are small, plump, brown and grey birds with short tails and stubby, powerful beaks. The differences between sparrow species can be subtle. Members of this family range in size from the chestnut sparrow (Passer eminibey), at and , to the parrot-billed sparrow (Passer gongonensis), at and . Sparrows are physically similar to other seed-eating birds, such as finches, but have a vestigial dorsal outer primary feather and an extra bone in the tongue.
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The grey squirrel was the most common wild mammal seen in Greater Manchester in 2012, and were reported in four out of five gardens; hedgehogs were seen in nearly half of all gardens surveyed; bats were seen in a third of all gardens surveyed. The house sparrow, common starling, and common blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; almost a third of Greater Manchester's gardens had baby blackbirds in June 2012. Eurasian magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county.Holland, Spence & Sutton (1984), pp. 28–29.
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Pennaraptora (Latin penna "bird feather" + raptor "thief", from rapere "snatch"; a feathered bird-like predator) is a clade defined as the most recent common ancestor of Oviraptor philoceratops, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and Passer domesticus (the house sparrow), and all descendants thereof, by Foth et al., 2014. The earliest known definitive member of this clade is Anchiornis, from the late Jurassic period of China, about 160 million years ago. The clade "Aviremigia" was conditionally proposed along with several other apomorphy-based clades relating to birds by Jacques Gauthier and Kevin de Queiroz in a 2001 paper.
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Cats use two hunting strategies, either stalking prey actively, or waiting in ambush until an animal comes close enough to be captured. The strategy used depends on the prey species in the area, with cats waiting in ambush outside burrows, but tending to actively stalk birds. Domestic cats are a major predator of wildlife in the United States, killing an estimated 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals annually. Certain species appear more susceptible than others; for example, 30% of house sparrow mortality is linked to the domestic cat.
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The Caribbean martin nests in cavities in banks and buildings, or old woodpecker holes. 3-6 eggs are laid in the lined nest, and incubated for 15 days, with another 26-27 to fledging. Just as the purple martin, this species may compete with other passerines for nesting cavities. In particular, the main foe is the house sparrow in urban areas, where they mostly use man-made structures, whereas in more rural locations Picidae holes in coconut trees are favored, and there is less competition with the sparrows.
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The abundant species identified were: grey francolin, Eurasian collared dove, laughing dove, Indian robin, red-vented bulbul, common babbler, house sparrow and plain munia. Greater short-toed lark (Calandrella brachydactyla) was the common migratory bird seen here in large numbers. The birds sighted less frequently, called the 'specialists' were ortolan bunting, desert warbler, pied tit, white-browed fantail, lesser spotted eagle, sirkeer malkoha, Eurasian wryneck and yellow-crowned woodpecker. ;Fauna The faunal diversity consists of 14 species of mammals, nine species of reptiles and six species of snakes.
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A young house sparrow (Passer domesticus) exhibits unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS) is sleep where one half of the brain rests while the other half remains alert. This is in contrast to normal sleep where both eyes are shut and both halves of the brain show unconsciousness. In USWS, also known as asymmetric slow-wave sleep, one half of the brain is in deep sleep, a form of non-rapid eye movement sleep and the eye corresponding to this half is closed while the other eye remains open.
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There are also waterbirds like yellow-legged gulls, mallards, black-winged slits, little grebes and garganeys. Other bird species are house sparrow, European greenfinch, European robins, common blackbirdsand European turtle doves. Some amphibians that can be found in Region of Murcia are Perez's frog, common parsley frog, European toads and Natterjack toads. Species of reptiles that are present in the region are Montpellier snakes, ladder snakes, horseshoe whip snakes, viperine water snakes, Iberian worm lizards, Spanish pond turtles, Iberian wall lizards, Spanish psammodromus, Tarentola mauritanica, loggerhead sea turtles and Greek tortoises.
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Upon receiving pineal tissue transplantation, previously arrhythmic sparrows experienced the reestablishment of rhythmicity. In fact, their reestablished circadian oscillations resembled the circadian oscillation pattern for locomotor activity of the donor sparrows. The 20% of the sparrows who had successful transplantations showed temporary arrhythmicity in constant darkness for a period of 10 to 100 days, which was not always evenly distributed in the 24-hour day; the sparrows, however, eventually became rhythmic once again.Zimmerman N.H., Menaker M. The pineal gland: A pacemaker within the circadian system of the house sparrow.
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The range of the house sparrow has expanded dramatically due to human activities. Birds live and breed in most terrestrial habitats and on all seven continents, reaching their southern extreme in the snow petrel's breeding colonies up to inland in Antarctica. The highest bird diversity occurs in tropical regions. It was earlier thought that this high diversity was the result of higher speciation rates in the tropics; however recent studies found higher speciation rates in the high latitudes that were offset by greater extinction rates than in the tropics.
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The Eurasian tree sparrow is long, with a wingspan of about and a weight of , making it roughly 10% smaller than the house sparrow. The adult's crown and nape are rich chestnut, and there is a kidney-shaped black ear patch on each pure white cheek; the chin, throat, and the area between the bill and throat are black. The upperparts are light brown, streaked with black, and the brown wings have two distinct narrow white bars. The legs are pale brown, and the bill is lead- blue in summer, becoming almost black in winter.
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Where trees are in short supply, as in Mongolia, both species may utilise man-made structures as nest sites. The Eurasian tree sparrow is rural in Europe, but is an urban bird in eastern Asia; in southern and central Asia, both Passer species may be found around towns and villages. In parts of the Mediterranean, such as Italy, both the tree and the Italian or Spanish sparrows may be found in settlements. In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is largely an urban bird, and it is the house sparrow which utilises more natural habitats.
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The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown. The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts. The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head. It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes (lores).
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A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long. Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago. Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean "willow sparrows".
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Some have classified it as a subspecies of house sparrow, a subspecies of the Spanish sparrow, or as a distinct species, a treatment followed if only for convenience by authorities such as the Handbook of the Birds of the World. A DNA analysis by Glenn-Peter Sætre and colleagues published in 2011 indicated an origin of the Italian sparrow through hybridisation between the Spanish and house sparrows, and Sætre and colleagues argued that given its origins and the limited extent of hybridisation, the treatment as a distinct species was supported.
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A typical clutch contains three or four eggs, and both parents are involved in breeding, from nest building to feeding young. The Cape sparrow is common in most of its range and coexists successfully in urban habitats with two of its relatives, the native southern grey-headed sparrow and the house sparrow, an introduced species. The Cape sparrow's population has not been recorded decreasing significantly, and it is not seriously threatened by human activities, so it is assessed as a species of least concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
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The juvenile is like the female, but young males have black markings on the head from an early age. The Cape sparrow's calls are chirps similar to those of the house sparrow, but much more musical and mellow. The basic call is used in flight and while perching socially and transcribed as chissip, chirrup, ', or '. A loud, distinctive call used by the male to advertise nest ownership can be written as tweeng or twileeng; this call can be extended into a jerky and repetitive song, chip cheerup, chip cheerup.
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Cape sparrows and a southern masked weaver at a bird feeder in Johannesburg during the winter The Cape sparrow is social, lives in flocks, and usually breeds in colonies. Away from settled areas it spends much of the year wandering nomadically, in flocks of up to 200 birds. In cultivated and built up areas, smaller flocks form where food is provided for livestock or birds. In such places, it associates with other seed-eating birds, such as the house sparrow, the Cape weaver, and weavers of the genus Euplectes.
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The great sparrow (Passer motitensis), also known as the southern rufous sparrow, is found in southern Africa in dry, wooded savannah and towns. This is a 15-16 cm long sparrow superficially like a large house sparrow. It has a grey crown and rear neck and rufous upperparts. While in the past some authorities considered this species and several related species of 'rufous sparrow' on the African mainland to be the same as the Iago sparrow of Cape Verde, they do not appear to be so closely related as thought.
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Monte Verde, São Vicente The Iago sparrow is endemic to the archipelago of Cape Verde. It is common on most islands, excluding Fogo (from which it is absent) and Santa Luzia, Branco and Sal (on which it is scarce). The Iago sparrow is found commonly in a variety of habitats, including flat lava plains, coastal cliffs, gorges, and the edges of farmland, at altitudes of up to . It also occurs in settled areas and gardens, where it may overlap somewhat with the house sparrow, but usually not with the Spanish sparrow.
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The Spanish sparrow occurs in richer cultivated land with larger trees and villages, restricting the Iago sparrow to more arid cultivated land with smaller trees. In settlements where both the house sparrow and Iago sparrow occur, house sparrows tend to occupy the denser areas, while Iago sparrows are found primarily around trees and open spaces. In agricultural areas the Iago sparrow may do some damage to crops, mostly by eating buds and shoots. The Iago sparrow is highly common within its limited range, though its exact population is not known.
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More than 40 beetle species have been recorded in common house martin nests, but most are either typical of the locality or found in the nests of other birds. The typical number of individuals, around 200, is relatively low compared to other bird species (1,400 individual beetles for house sparrow, 2,000 for sand martin). The beetles have no effect on the nesting birds, and the reason for their comparatively low numbers is unknown, although the numbers of specific parasites found in house martin's nests is also quite small.
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The updated list included the hedgehog, house sparrow, grass snake and the garden tiger moth, while otters, bottlenose dolphins and red squirrels remained in need of habitat protection.BBC NEWS, Hedgehogs join 'protection' list In May 2011, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, in line with the commitments made at the 10th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Nagoya, Japan in 2010. In 2012 the UK BAP was succeeded by the 'UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework'.
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The family Archaeopterygidae is the only family in the order Archaeopterygiformes, which was coined by Max Fürbringer in 1888 to contain Archaeopterygidae and genus Archaeopteryx.Fürbringer, M. (1888) Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und Systematik der Voegel, Amsterdam, van Halkema, p. 1751 A formal phylogenetic definition for Archaeopterygidae was given by Xu and colleagues in 2011: the clade comprising all animals closer to Archaeopteryx than to the house sparrow or Dromaeosaurus. The family Dromaeosauridae, traditionally considered to be non-avian dinosaurs, have been included in this group by at least one author.
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The calls include cheeps and chirps, and the typical sparrow churring alarm call. The northern grey-headed sparrow is replaced in eastern and southern Africa by very similar birds that are sometimes considered races of this species: Swainson's sparrow, the parrot-billed sparrow, the Swahili sparrow, and the southern grey-headed sparrow. According to phylogenetic studies by Arnaiz-Villena et al., this species is indeed related to the other grey-headed sparrows, and these species together are most closely related within genus Passer to the house sparrow and allies.
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If the female accepts the male and the nesting site, she alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs. Predators of young bluebirds in the nests can include snakes, cats, and raccoons. Bird species competing with bluebirds for nesting locations include the common starling, American crow, and house sparrow, which take over the nesting sites of bluebirds, killing young, smashing eggs, and probably killing adult bluebirds. Male western bluebird Bluebirds are attracted to platform bird feeders, filled with grubs of the darkling beetle, sold by many online bird product wholesalers as mealworms.
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Common residents Passeriformes include scrub jay, American crow, chestnut-backed chickadee, bushtit, Bewick's wren, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, house finch, California towhee and song sparrow. Fishery characteristics of Richardson Bay include a Pacific herring fishery and oyster beds. The herring fishing fleet serving all of San Francisco Bay is based in Richardson Bay at the Sausalito harbor. This herring fishing is overseen by the California Department of Fish and Game; the herring population is in a downward trend, although not from excessive fishing pressure with the net techniques in use, but rather from ocean environmental factors.
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Sphex pensylvanicus on a katydid Adult females of S. pensylvanicus build an underground nest which they provision with various orthopteran insects, particularly of the genera Microcentrum, Amblycorypha and Scudderia. Prey are stung three times, once in the neck and twice in the thorax, and are paralyzed by the wasp's sting, although they can survive for weeks. The prey are then carried to the nest. While collecting their prey, the females are vulnerable to kleptoparasitism, in which birds, including the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the grey catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), steal the prey that the wasp has collected.
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The Birds comprises a pair of outdoor sculptures depicting house sparrows by Myfanwy MacLeod, installed after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza, which served as the site of the 2010 Olympic Village in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The work depicts one male and one female house sparrow, each approximately five metres tall, and was the first piece approved by the city's Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. It was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same name, sustainability, the site's history as a shipyard, and immigration. They were removed on November 23, 2017 for repairs.
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The floral collection planted in the park has been done very selectively with well laid footpaths to stroll through the gardens. The natural vegetation chosen consists of feathery pampas grass, Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia) tree with small leaves, ribbon gum, Turkey oak, eucalyptus and poplars. There is also rose garden within the park. Animal sculpture in the park Of the two lakes built in the garden, the larger lake, located in the centre of the park, is the habitat for water birds such as mallard, moorhen, ring-necked parakeet, white wagtail, wren, blackbird, blackcap, house sparrow, serin, and greenfinch.
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Grange Park has a wildlife conservation area the Genesis Wildlife Haven, where a variety of wildlife can be seen. The area had previously been a wasteland before in 2002 which then a group of children from the local school formed by Mrs Susan Barnes "Christ the King Wildlife Support Group" cleaned up the area. A nature conservation area was created for the benefit of local school children and community. A variety of birds have been seen at the haven including blue tit, great tit, European greenfinch, blackbird, blackcap, common chaffinch, house sparrow, jay, kestrel, pied wagtail, robin, song thrush, sparrowhawk and woodpigeon.
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A number of bird species have been introduced by humans; some, like the European goldfinch and greenfinch,Egerton, p. 282. coexist happily with Australian species, while others, such as the common starling, common blackbird, house sparrow and Indian mynah, are destructive of some native bird species and thus destabilise the native ecosystem. About 200 species of seabird live on the Australian coast, including many species of migratory seabird. Australia is at the southern end of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway for migratory water birds, which extends from Far-East Russia and Alaska through Southeast Asia to Australia and New Zealand.
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Additional known hosts for this species include the warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus), the blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), the goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), the yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia), the robin (Erithacus rubecula), junco (Junco hyemalis hyemalis), the red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea), the bullfinch (Loxigilla violacea), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), the weaver (Ploceus cucullatus), the grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), the canary (Serinus canaria), the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), the pigeon (Spilopelia senegalensis), eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), starling (Sturnus vulgaris) black-faced grassquit (Tiaris bicolor), white-eyed thrush (Turdus jamaicensis), the blackbird (Turdus merula) and American sparrows (Zonotrichia species).
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Before the Spanish sparrow arrived in the Canary Islands and Madeira, the rock sparrow was the sole native sparrow. In the Canaries, the Spanish sparrow occurs in most habitats, having ousted the rock sparrow from all but the driest localities. In Madeira the Spanish sparrow is common in cultivated areas, but it has not fully adapted to nesting in buildings or breeding in the drier north of the island. The Spanish sparrow is not common on most of the Cape Verde islands, due to the presence of the endemic Iago sparrow, and the house sparrow on São Vicente.
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Description of the house and Eurasian tree sparrows from the Systema naturaeAlthough Linnaeus gives the location as simply in Europa, the type specimen was from Bagnacavallo, Italy () Linnaeus's text for the tree sparrow translates "F[inch]. With dusky wings and tail, black and grey body paired white wing bars." The Old World sparrow genus Passer is a group of small passerine birds that is believed to have originated in Africa, and which contains 15–25 species depending on the authority. Its members are typically found in open, lightly wooded, habitats, although several species, notably the house sparrow (P.
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In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows. In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows. Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation. In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.
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In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds. A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde. The first of many successful introductions to North America occurred when birds from England were released in New York City, in 1852, intended to control the ravages of the linden moth. In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, and it is one of the most abundant birds of the continent.
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In particular, they and the Dead Sea sparrow share a courtship display in which males quiver their wings above their body. This intense display is probably an adaptation to nesting in a clump of trees surrounded by similar habitat, where such an intense display may serve important purposes in keeping a colony together. The golden sparrows and chestnut sparrow have been seen as highly primitive among the genus Passer, only distantly related to the house sparrow and the related "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows". In recognition of this they are sometimes placed in a separate genus or subgenus Auripasser, or a superspecies.
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The chestnut and golden sparrows have been seen as highly primitive among the genus Passer, only distantly related to the house sparrow and the related "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows". In recognition of this they are sometimes placed in a separate genus or subgenus Auripasser. The courtship display of the Dead Sea sparrow was thought to have evolved separately in a similar environment from that of these species, in an example of convergent evolution. However, mitochondrial DNA phylogenies indicate that the chestnut and golden sparrows are either derived from or are the closest relatives of the Palaearctic black- bibbed sparrows.
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The tree swallow is negatively impacted by the clearing of forests and the reduction of marshes, the latter reducing the habitat available for wintering. This swallow has to compete for nest sites with the common starling, house sparrow (both introduced to North America), bluebirds, and the house wren (which also destroys nests without occupying them). Acidification of lakes can force this swallow to go relatively long distances to find calcium-rich items, and can result in chicks eating plastic. Other chemicals, like pesticides and other pollutants, can become highly concentrated in eggs, and PCBs are associated with the abandonment of a pair's clutch.
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Smettan, H. (1987). Ergebnisse zwölfjähriger Nahrungskontrollen der Waldohreule (Asio otus L.) im mittleren Neckarland/Baden-Württemberg unter Berücksichtigung jahreszeitlicher Veränderungen und der Populationsdynamik von Kleinsäugern. Ornithologische Jahreshefte für Baden-Württemberg. 3: 1-52. Overall British studies found in a sample of 7161 prey items that 1161 were birds (14.95%) and that bird were present in 90% of examined pellets. Of these, 46.9% were house sparrow, 7.5% were common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), 4.65% were common blackbird (Turdus merula), 3.35% were European greenfinch (Chloris chloris), 2.92% were song thrush (Turdus philomelos), 2.49% were Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) and 2.23% were common linnet (Linaria cannabina).
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Journal of Raptor Research, 42(4), 292-295. While mammals usually are dominant in the diets of long-eared owls in Spain, in the Albufera reserve of the nation, birds were 53.5% by number and 48.6% of the biomass of 864 prey items. A total of 34 species of birds were noted, led by common chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) (12.5% by number, 4.8% by biomass), house sparrow (8.2% by number, 12.2% by biomass), barn swallow (6.4% by number, 7% by biomass) and sand martin (Riparia riparia) (3.2% by number, 2.7% by biomass).García, A., & Cervera, F. (2001).
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The extensive planting of flowering and fruiting trees throughout the grounds also serves to attract a plethora of wild birds and insects. Included in the former are several species of bird which used to be commonly seen in island gardens but have become increasingly scarce, including the house sparrow and song thrush. There are over 50 nest-boxes positioned around the grounds, which are used by a variety of birds including barn owls, kestrels, swallows and house martins. Other animals which are commonly seen within the grounds are the red squirrel, bank vole, and the short-toed treecreeper.
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Carrano, Benson & Sampson (2012) noted that the name Metriacanthosauridae should be used as it has priority over Sinraptoridae. Cladistically, Sinraptoridae had been latest defined in 2005 by Paul Sereno as the most inclusive monophyletic group that contains Sinraptor dongi and all species closer related to Sinraptor than to either Allosaurus fragilis, Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, or the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). Furthermore, the 2012 study named a new subfamily Metriacanthosaurinae to include all metriacanthosaurids more closely related to Metriacanthosaurus than to Yangchuanosaurus. A much larger phylogenetic analysis found Xuanhanosaurus, previously considered a basal megalosauroid, to be the basalmost metriacanthosaurid.
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Hills to about 350 m (1000 ft) line both sides of the valley within the city limits. The western hills have been populated as residential areas, but the eastern side is protected and clad in native bush and scrub, and the ubiquitous gorse in areas that have been cleared as a result of scrub fires or earlier human activity. Native birds are common, including the New Zealand pigeon, tui, grey fantail, silvereye, shining cuckoo (in season), grey warbler and morepork. Introduced species include the common blackbird, song thrush, house sparrow, European goldfinch, common chaffinch, common starling, and Australian magpie.
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Non-predatory mammals such as bats, cattle, sheep, and wallabies are also attacked, though less vigorously than birds. Noisy miner attacks are not limited to chasing the intruder, and aggressive incidents often result in the death of the trespasser. Reports include those of two noisy miners repeatedly pecking a house sparrow (Passer domesticus) at the base of its skull and killing it in six minutes; one noisy miner grasping a striated pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) by the wing, while another pecked it on the head until it died; and a sacred kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) being chased and harassed for over five hours, and then found dead with a fractured skull.
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According to Tchernov's 1962 paper, Passer predomesticus was found in the middle Acheulean (middle Pleistocene, probably more than 400,000 years old) layer E1 of the Oumm-Qatafa cave in Wadi Khareitoun near Bethlehem. In 1984, however, Tchernov wrote that P. predomesticus was about 140,000 years old, from the Yabrudian. Layer E1 contained remains of about 40 bird species, including a premaxilla Tchernov described as a precursor of the Dead Sea sparrow (Passer moabiticus) and a tarsometatarsus and humerus tentatively allied with the house sparrow. An undetermined Acheulean layer of the same cave also contained fossils Tchernov described as precursors of both the house and Spanish sparrows.
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Jesus's use of "sparrows" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in the final scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Sparrows are represented in ancient Egyptian art very rarely, but an Egyptian hieroglyph G37 is based on the house sparrow. The symbol had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad. Old World sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, even though most are not particularly colourful and their songs are unremarkable.
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The native fauna is composed of various animal species that inhabit the different existing ecosystems. Among the mammals, the taruca, the deer, the llama, the spectacled bear and the fox stand out in the thickest areas of the puna forests, and rodents such as the vizcacha and the muca in the stony areas. There is also a great diversity of birds: raptors, such as the condor, sparrowhawk and kestrel, and nocturnal, such as the owl; waterfowl, such as the Andean duck, and passerines, such as the house sparrow, goldfinch, and nightingale. It is worth noting the existence of migratory birds, such as the swallows, which nest during the winter in wetlands.
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The effect of urbanization on the diet composition of the tawny owl (Strix aluco L.). Pol. J. Ecol, 61(2), 391-400. The urbanization effect was particularly strongly noted in England, where birds constituted only about 4% of the foods in the countryside per two studies, but in Wythenshawe part of Manchester and Holland Park in London, birds made up 89% and 93% of the foods, respectively. The most important avian foods to English tawny owls were the house sparrow (at 27% and 52% in Wythenshawe and Holland Park), the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) (at 33% in Wythenshawe) and the rock dove (at 22% in Holland Park).
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The forests of Birmaharaj pur have various species of animals like panthers (Kalara patria), Felis chaus (Bana biradi), bear (Bhalu), mongoose (Hatia Neula), Cnon alpinus (Balia kukur), jackal (Bilua), hyaena (Gadhia), Viverricula indica (Saliapatani), Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Katasha), porcupine (Jhinka), spotted deer (Chittal), Indian mouse-deer (Khuranta), barking deer (Kutura), black-buck antelope (Krushna Sara), Cervusnnicolor; Sambar, bison (Gayala), Bandar(Pati) and Presbytis entellus: Langur (Hanuman). Birds found are domestic crow (Patikau), Corvus macrorhynchos (Damara kau), jungle fowl (Bana kukuda), Peacock (Mayura), Bluejoy (Bhada bhadalia), Hill Mynah (Sari), house sparrow (Chatia), Haliastur Indus (Sankhchila), Milvus migrans (Chila), vultures (Saguna),–Koyal (Koili), Kingfisher, common Mynah, Drongo, Redvental bulbul, spotted dove.
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The Jatayu and Sparrow Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore (JCBC), (Hindi: जटायु संरक्षण एवं प्रजनन केँद्र) is world's largest facility within Bir Shikargah Wildlife Sanctuary for the breeding and conservation of Indian vultures (गिध) and House sparrow (Passer domesticus चिड़िया) in the State of Haryana, India, in Panchkula district in the town of Pinjore.Two sparrow research centres to come up in Haryana, Indian Express, 10 Jan 2019.Forests Department, Haryana It is run by the Forests Department, Haryana and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) with the help of British charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).Flight of Highly Endangered Vultures Grounded by Red Tape; TheQuint.
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There have been observed a total of 171 bird species within the city limits. The most commonly encountered avifauna include the house sparrow, house finch, Brewer's blackbird, California towhee, spotted towhee, oak titmouse, acorn woodpecker, and California quail. Raptor population densities in the Conejo Valley, which therefore has some of the highest quantities of raptors in the U.S. Some of the raptors found in the City of Thousand Oaks include the golden eagle, red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, marsh hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, red-shouldered hawk, ferruginous hawk, pigeon hawk, prairie falcon, turkey vulture, barn owl, great horned owl, screech owl, American kestrel, and the white-tailed kite.
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A male in Sardinia The western subspecies hispaniolensis breeds in parts of Iberia and North Africa, some islands, and the Balkans. In Iberia it is uncommon, occurring in the Tagus valley and sporadically in the northern meseta, the eastern coast, and in the Guadalquivir and Guadiana valleys. While the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow form a "hybrid swarm" in the eastern half of the Maghreb, they coexist with little hybridisation in the western half. In northern Italy and Corsica the Spanish sparrow is replaced by the Italian sparrow, and the two intergrade in southern Italy, as well as Malta, Crete, and nearby islands such as Rhodes.
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In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. Jesus's use of "sparrows" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow. G37 The house sparrow is represented in ancient Egyptian art very rarely, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it. The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.
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The Eurasian tree sparrow is widespread in the towns and cities of eastern Asia, but in Europe it is a bird of lightly wooded open countryside, with the house sparrow breeding in the more urban areas. The Eurasian tree sparrow's extensive range and large population ensure that it is not endangered globally, but there have been large declines in western European populations, in part due to changes in farming practices involving increased use of herbicides and loss of winter stubble fields. In eastern Asia and western Australia, this species is sometimes viewed as a pest, although it is also widely celebrated in oriental art.
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A young starling with a bright yellow gape In bird anatomy, the gape is the interior of the open mouth of a bird, and the gape flange is the region where the two mandibles join together at the base of the beak. The width of the gape can be a factor in the choice of food. The gape flange on this juvenile house sparrow is the yellowish region at the base of the beak. Gapes of juvenile altricial birds are often brightly coloured, sometimes with contrasting spots or other patterns, and these are believed to be an indication of their health, fitness and competitive ability.
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The Sind sparrow was first formally described by Edward Blyth, from a specimen collected by Alexander Burnes at Bahawalpur in around 1840. Blyth's description was published in an issue of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal which, although dated 1844, was published only in 1845. The sparrow was not recorded until 36 years later, despite the efforts of noted ornithologists Allan Octavian Hume in Sindh and William Thomas Blanford in eastern Iran. This was probably because of its general similarity to the house sparrow, though additionally, Blyth's description of the species incorrectly described its rump feathers as maroon, and a description by Thomas C. Jerdon contained similar errors.
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The Cape sparrow was first taxonomically described by Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776, as Loxia melanura. Some other earlier biologists described the Cape sparrow in Loxia or Fringilla, but it has otherwise been regarded as a member of the genus Passer along with the house sparrow and other sparrows of the Old World. Within this genus, morphological comparisons and geography were insufficient to elucidate to which species the Cape sparrow is most closely related. Mitochondrial DNA phylogenies have strongly suggested that the Cape sparrow is among the most basal members of its genus, having diverged from the rest of the genus during the late Miocene, over 5 million years ago.
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The Cape sparrow prefers habitats with an annual rainfall of less than , though in desert areas it is usually found near watercourses or watering holes. While it occurs in urban centres, it prefers parks, gardens, and other open spaces, and has a low reproductive success in more built-up areas. In towns, the Cape sparrow competes with both the native southern grey-headed sparrow and house sparrow, which was introduced to southern Africa in the 19th century. Since it is more established around humans in its range than either, it successfully competes with both species, though they may exclude it from nesting in holes.
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The desert froglet is recognised by the 'melodious chirping' call of the adult male, which sounds similar to a House Sparrow. Each call consists of a repeating pattern: two pulses of 60 milliseconds each and 4000 hertz, which is immediately followed by two additional double pulses of decreasing energy and quickening rate, and a brief pause. Calls are distinct from the shorter creaking call of Sloane's froglet, stretched out call of the Eastern sign- bearing froglet, lower pitch of the Wallum froglet, and grating sounds of the Common eastern froglet. Calling males can be found either hiding under vegetation or exposed at water edges.
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A garden visitor hand-feeding a grey squirrel The gardens are home to a population of semi-tame grey squirrels and many species of birds. A 1970 report covering the period 1965-1969 listed the vertebrates resident in the gardens at that time: Common wood pigeon, Tawny owl, Blue tit, Eurasian Wren, Dunnock, European Robin, European greenfinch, Mistle thrush, Song thrush, Blackbird, and House sparrow, Common shrew, Wood mouse, and Brown rat. In the early 19th century, the gardens included a menagerie. Henry Baines' daughter, Fanny, recalled 70 years later that in this period the menageries contained a bear, a golden eagle, and several monkeys, amongst other animals.
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Although its distinctive crown patches allow for easy identification of the adult golden- crowned sparrow in breeding plumage, an immature or non-breeding bird might be mistaken for a white-crowned or white-throated sparrow. It is distinguished from the former by its crown pattern and dusky (rather than pale pink or yellowish) bill, and from the latter by its larger size, plain throat, and lack of a buff-colored central crown stripe. A young or non-breeding bird may also resemble a female house sparrow, but can be distinguished by its larger size, darker plumage, longer tail and (usually) some amount of dull yellow feathering on its forehead.
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It is a brood parasite which lays its eggs in the nest of the African quailfinch, Ortygospiza atricollis, a slightly unusual host since it is only a distant relative to the firefinches parasitised by most indigobirds. It does not destroy the host's egg, but its own eggs are added to those already present. The adult male quailfinch indigobird has greenish-black plumage, and the female resembles a female house sparrow, with streaked brown upperparts, buff underparts and a whitish supercilium. Many of the indigobirds are very similar in appearance, with the males difficult to separate in the field, and the young and females near impossible.
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The northern grey-headed sparrow (Passer griseus), also known as the grey- headed sparrow, is a species of bird in the sparrow family Passeridae, which is resident in much of tropical Africa. It occurs in a wide range of open habitats, including open woodlands and human habitation, often occupying the same niche as the house sparrow does in Eurasia. The adult northern grey- headed sparrow has a pale grey head with a white moustache stripe, pale brown upperparts, whitish underparts and chestnut wings with a small white shoulder patch. The sexes are similar, but young birds are slightly duller and lack the white wing patch.
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The environment impact assessment survey conducted by NTPC, reports the presence of 27 species of birds that fall into 25 different genera. These birds include common myna, common kingfisher, Malabar pied hornbill, snakebird, cattle egret, little ringed plover, Indian roller, house crow, jungle crow, jungle fowl, fork-tailed drongo, black-rumped flameback, little egret, Asian koel, common moorhen, black-capped kingfisher, house sparrow, black kite, white- throated kingfisher, yellow-throated sparrow, stork-billed kingfisher, baya weaver, red-vented bulbul, greater painted-snipe, black-headed ibis, common babbler and hoopoe.National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd.. 1996. India - Kayamkulam Combined Cycle Power Plant Project : environmental impact assessment. Vol.
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For example, the house sparrow, which was introduced in the early 1850s to the eastern United States, evolved a north-south gradient in size soon after its introduction. This gradient reflects the gradient that already existed in the house sparrow’s native range in Europe. Interbreeding populations represented by a gradient of coloured circles around a geographic barrier The Larus gulls interbreed in a ring around the arctic. 1: Larus argentatus argentatus, 2: Larus fuscus (sensu stricto), 3: Larus fuscus heuglini, 4: Larus argentatus birulai, 5: Larus argentatus vegae, 6: Larus argentatus smithsonianus, 7: Larus argentatus argenteus Ring speciesFundamentals of biogeography, Richard J. Huggett, 2nd ed.
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The early settlers in New Zealand cleared the bush and found their newly planted crops were invaded by hordes of caterpillars and other insects deprived of their previous food sources. Native birds were not habituated to living in close proximity to man so the common starling was introduced from Europe along with the House Sparrow to control the pests. It was first brought over in 1862 by the Nelson Acclimatisation Society and other introductions followed. The birds soon became established and are now found all over the country including the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the north and the equally distant Macquarie Island far to the south.
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As well, these birds often congregate at feeding troughs to eat grain and concurrently contaminate the food and water source with their droppings that were provided for livestock. For example, high protein supplements added to cattle feed are selectively eaten by common starlings. In 1968, the cost of cattle rations consumed during winter by starlings was $84 per 1,000 starlings and is proposed to be much more expensive today given an increase in current cattle feed costs. The English or house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the common starling are considerable agricultural pests, together causing an estimated US$ 1 billion per year in crop damages.
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Close up view of the plumage on a house sparrow The differences in plumage of a blue grosbeak, from top to bottom, between a breeding male (alternate plumage), a non-breeding male (basic plumage), a female, and the related indigo bunting Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can be different colour morphs. The placement of feathers on a bird is not haphazard, but rather emerge in organized, overlapping rows and groups, and these are known by standardized names.
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It occurs in between three and eight percent of bird species worldwide (estimates vary), but is much more common in Australia and Southern Africa.McMahon T.A. and Finlayson, B. (1992) Global Runoff: Continental Comparisons of Annual Flows and Peak Discharges, Catena Verlag, Bird species in which this behaviour is found include the common moorhen, the house sparrow, the acorn woodpecker, and the apostlebird. Damarland mole rats, meerkats and humans are examples of mammals that exhibit this behaviour. It is also seen in a number of species of bee such as carpenter bees (note this is distinct from the behaviour of the European honey bee, where the worker bees are sterile and incapable of reproducing).
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The family was originally named by R. E. Weems in 1980 and was placed in its own suborder, Doswelliina. The Doswelliidae has long been considered a monospecific family of basal archosauriforms represented by Doswellia kaltenbachi from the Late Triassic of North America. However, a 2011 cladistic analysis by Desojo, Ezcurra, & Schultz recovered the newly named Brazilian genus Archeopelta as well as the enigmatic Argentinian archosauriform Tarjadia as close relatives of Doswellia, within a monophyletic Doswelliidae. These authors defined the family as the most inclusive clade containing all archosauromorphs more closely related to Doswellia kaltenbachi than to Proterochampsa barrionuevoi, Erythrosuchus africanus, Caiman latirostris, (the broad-snouted caiman) or Passer domesticus (the house sparrow).
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A shortage of nesting sites caused by changes in urban building design is probably a factor, and conservation organisations have encouraged the use of special nest boxes for sparrows. A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows. Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite. Protecting insect habitats on farms, and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.
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This sparrow is distinctive even within its genus in that it has no plumage differences between the sexes; the juvenile also resembles the adult, although the colours tend to be duller. Its contrasting face pattern makes this species easily identifiable in all plumages; the smaller size and brown, not grey, crown are additional differences from the male house sparrow. Adult and juvenile Eurasian tree sparrows undergo a slow complete moult in the autumn, and show an increase in body mass despite a reduction in stored fat. The change in mass is due to an increase in blood volume to support active feather growth, and a generally higher water content in the body.
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By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa. Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America, Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world. It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.
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A house sparrow having a dust bath Sparrows dust bathing in Binz Rhea dust bathing at Marwell Wildlife Zoo Dust bathing (also called sand bathing) is an animal behavior characterized by rolling or moving around in dust, dry earth or sand, with the likely purpose of removing parasites from fur, feathers or skin. Dust bathing is a maintenance behavior performed by a wide range of mammalian and avian species. For some animals, dust baths are necessary to maintain healthy feathers, skin, or fur, similar to bathing in water or wallowing in mud. In some mammals, dust bathing may be a way of transmitting chemical signals (or pheromones) to the ground which marks an individual's territory.
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Other aspects are highly variable, such as the total number of layers (from 3 in the African lungfish to 15 in the goldfishNorthcutt, 2002), and the number of different types of cells (from 2 in the lungfish to 27 in the house sparrow). The optic tectum is closely associated with an adjoining structure called the nucleus isthmi, which has drawn a lot of interest because it evidently makes a very important contribution to tectal function. (In the superior colliculus the like structure is termed the parabigeminal nucleus). The nucleus isthmii is divided into two parts, called isthmus pars magnocellularis (Imc; "the part with the large cells") and isthmus pars parvocellularis (Ipc; "the part with the small cells").
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Female in Tuscany The Italian sparrow is found in northern and central Italy, Corsica, and small parts of France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. Its distribution was described by Italian zoologist Enrico Hillyer Giglioli in 1881 as professing "'Conservative opinions'; for it keeps strictly within our current political frontiers". At the northernmost edge of its range in the southern Alps, there is a narrow hybrid zone about 20–30 km (12–20 mi) wide with the house sparrow. In southern Italy, there is a gradual clinal trend with the Spanish sparrow, with birds increasing in their similarity to the Spanish sparrow in appearance and ecology further south, from around Naples to western Sicily, where birds resemble pure Spanish sparrows.
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Commenting on his unsuccessful search, Hume wrote that the hundreds of house sparrows he killed in pursuit of the Sind sparrow "ought to form a heavy load" on Blyth's conscience, and that if the Sind sparrow existed "it would be only decent for it ... to put on an appearance with as little delay as possible". Hume doubted its distinction, as did other ornithologists. The Sind sparrow was rediscovered by Scrope Berdmore Doig in 1880, in the Eastern Nara district. Ernst Hartert considered it a subspecies of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus pyrrhonotus, in his Die Vögel der paläarktishen Fauna, but Doig and Claud Ticehurst both found that the two species bred in the same areas without interbreeding.
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Sidney overlooks Sidney Channel Important Bird Area, an internationally recognized site of major importance for many species of seabirds such as common murres, rhinoceros auklet, pigeon guillemots, murrelets, three species of cormorants, and several gull species, including the unusual Heermann's gull. Another resident bird is the bald eagle which has nested continuously in 'Beaufort Grove' for twenty-five years. In summer large numbers of great blue herons gather in Roberts Bay (part of Shoal Harbour Sanctuary) to feed on the abundant small fish. A variety of songbirds (towhees, American robins, Bewick's and winter wrens, bushtits, chickadees etc.) are found in back yards, along with the common northwestern crow, and introduced species such as the common starling and house sparrow.
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The bill of the female is pale yellow with the tip and cutting edge of mandible dusky. Juveniles are dull grey with a brown back, a pale yellow supercilium, and a pale horn bill. Females and juveniles have hints of chestnut on their supercilium, shoulders, and throat, by which they may be distinguished from other sparrows, such as the Kenya sparrow and the other rufous sparrows, which are common in much of the chestnut sparrow's range; or the house sparrow, which also occurs in parts of its range. The basic call of the chestnut sparrow is a subdued chirp, with two recorded variations: a scolding threat call, rendered chrrrrit or chrrrrreeeerrrrrrrr and a chew chew flight call.
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An illustration by Philipp Franz von Siebold from Fauna Japonica, in which the russet sparrow was described with the now synonymised name Passer russatus The sexes differ, or are dimorphic, in their plumage, and have a similar pattern to that in the corresponding sex of house sparrow. There is some variation between the three subspecies, especially in the colouration of the underparts. Birds of the subspecies rutilans are off-white on their cheeks and the sides of their necks, and have pale grey underparts. Birds of the subspecies intensior have a pale yellow wash on their underparts and cheeks, as well as darker upperparts, while those of the subspecies cinnamomeus have a heavy yellow tinge to their underparts.
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In the Himalayas, it is strongly associated with terrace cultivation, and it probably only spread to the Himalayas when these agricultural practices arrived 3000 to 4000 years ago. In towns where it occurs alongside the house or tree sparrow, it is found in gardens and less built up areas. In those hill stations in India where both the house and the russet sparrow occur, the house sparrow breeds around more-built up areas and bazaars, whereas the russet sparrow is "rather more up market at the larger houses with gardens and open spaces". In towns where it is the only sparrow, it is not dependent on trees, breeding around houses and eating scraps in streets.
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Of the sedentary bird species the hawk (Buteo buteo rothschild) is the most notable, along with the Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), Rock Dove (Columba livia), Atlantic European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis parva) and the Azorean subspecies of Common blackbird (Turdus merula azorensis). Migratory and marine birds are more common in the islands of the Azores, resulting in the identification of several species including approximately 37 nesting species on Monte Brasil annually (28 land and eight marine species). During the summer, and especially along the mount's southern coast there are large bands of nesting species of Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), and the ubiquitous Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans).
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A male and female Spanish sparrow, a close relative of P. predomesticus, in southeastern Turkey The known material of Passer predomesticus consists of two premaxillary bones in the collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The bones were described by Israeli palaeontologist Eitan Tchernov in 1962 and reviewed by South African zoologist Miles Markus two years later. Tchernov did not unambiguously identify a type specimen and his paper was said by Robert M. Mengel, the editor of The Auk, to contain "many troublesome lapses and contradictions". In 1975, French palaeontologist Cécile Mourer-Chauviré reported on fossil sparrows from a cave at Saint-Estève-Janson in southeastern France, which could not be identified as either P. predomesticus or the house sparrow (Passer domesticus).
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Bird counts between 2003 and 2005 revealed that the most common species in the Hammar Marshes are little egret, black-headed gull, slender- billed gull, common gull and little tern. Notable birds include western marsh harrier, purple heron, grey heron, great cormorant, western cattle egret, black-winged stilt, little grebe, pied kingfisher, white-throated kingfisher and malachite kingfisher, white wagtail, isabelline shrike, bluethroat, Iraq babbler, white-eared bulbul, graceful prinia, common chiffchaff and house sparrow. Mammal-oriented surveys carried out between 2009 and 2012 revealed the presence of jungle cat, European otter, gray wolf, red fox, golden jackal, striped hyena, honey badger, small Asian mongoose, wild boar, long-eared hedgehog, Kuhl's pipistrelle, Cape hare, Euphrates jerboa, brown rat, Asian house shrew, Etruscan shrew and house mouse.
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" She has also said of its inspiration: The Birds was also inspired by sustainability and the site's history as a shipyard, where sailors often wore sparrow tattoos. The sculptures have been called an "ode to immigration" based on MacLeod's interest in "alien species" and when non-native species are introduced to an environment (the house sparrow is not native to North America). MacLeod said: "My work for the Olympic Village tries to infuse the ordinary and commonplace sparrow with a touch of the ridiculous and the sublime. Locating this artwork in an urban plaza not only highlights what has become the 'natural' environment of the sparrow, it also reinforces the 'small' problem of introducing a foreign species and the subsequent havoc wreaked upon our ecosystems.
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Left - Female♀ Right - Male♂ Sparrow sized with a finch-like bill and short legs, these birds are usually seen sitting on the ground, and although they will sometimes perch on wires they do not perch in trees or bushes. The male is sandy brown overall with a black belly, chin, lower lores and eye stripe. The top of the head is ashy (although the base of these crown feathers are dark) unlike the dark brown to black in the black-crowned sparrow-lark which partly overlaps with the range of this species in the arid zone of India and Pakistan. The female is pale brown and very similar to a female house sparrow, although the legs are much shorter and appearing stockier and shorter-necked.
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Songs and calls spring Although many species of bird imitate the vocalizations of other birds, the northern mockingbird is the best known in North America for doing so. Among the species and vocalizations imitated are Carolina wren, northern cardinal, tufted titmouse, eastern towhee, house sparrow, wood thrush and eastern bluebird songs, calls of the northern flicker and great crested flycatcher, jeers and pumphandles of the blue jay, and alarm, chups, and chirrs of the American robin. It imitates not only birds, but also other animals such as cats, dogs, frogs, crickets and sounds from artificial items such as unoiled wheels and even car alarms. As convincing as these imitations may be to humans, they often fail to fool other birds, such as the Florida scrub-jay.
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According to the current consensus, Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, together are the sole living members of an unranked "reptile" clade, the Archosauria. Four distinct lineages of bird survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, giving rise to ostriches and relatives (Paleognathae), ducks and relatives (Anseriformes), ground-living fowl (Galliformes), and "modern birds" (Neoaves). Phylogenetically, Aves is usually defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of a specific modern bird species (such as the house sparrow, Passer domesticus), and either Archaeopteryx, or some prehistoric species closer to Neornithes (to avoid the problems caused by the unclear relationships of Archaeopteryx to other theropods). If the latter classification is used then the larger group is termed Avialae.
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The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, and is not seriously threatened by human activities, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List. The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance (although the quelea is, unlike the sparrow, restricted to a single continent and has never been subject to human introductions). However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin. These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.
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The Eurasian species is not closely related to the American tree sparrow (Spizelloides arborea), which is in a different family, the American sparrows. The Eurasian tree sparrow's binomial name is derived from two Latin words: passer, "sparrow", and montanus, "of the mountains" (from mons "mountain"). The Eurasian tree sparrow was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 Systema Naturae as Fringilla montana, F. remigibus rectricibusque fuscis, corpore griseo nigroque, alarum fascia alba gemina but, along with the house sparrow, it was soon moved from the finches (family Fringillidae) into the new genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The Eurasian tree sparrow's common name is given because of its preference of tree holes for nesting.
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Large areas of formerly occupied farmland no longer provide these invertebrate resources due to the effects of intensive farming, and the availability of supplementary seed food within of the nest-site does not influence nest-site choice, or affect the number of young raised. In winter, seed resources are most likely to be a key limiting factor. At this time of year, individuals in a flock form linear dominance hierarchies, but there is no strong relation between the size of the throat patch and position in that hierarchy. This is in contrast to the house sparrow; in that species, fights to establish dominance are reduced by the display of the throat patch, the size of which acts as a signalling "badge" of fitness.
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Common are cow parsley, various species centaurea, tansy and verbascum densiflorum.Meadows of island Kizhi (in Russian) About 180 bird species from 15 families are known in the Kizhi area, and about 45 types of them were observed on the island. Most of them are migratory and stop on the island either for rest or nesting, such as swans, geese, ducks, lake seagulls, sterna, but there are also more stationary birds like house sparrow, Eurasian siskin, common chaffinch, skylark, jackdaw and crow. Among animals and amphibians, there are only newts (smooth newt and great crested newt), vipers, common lizard, frogs and toads (common frog, common toad and moor frog) and mice – the island is too small for larger animals which are abundant in the area.
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Illustration of a male by John Gould The Iago sparrow was first collected by Charles Darwin during the first stop of the second voyage of HMS Beagle at the island of Santiago (St. Iago). It was described for him in 1837 by zoologist John Gould, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, and given the name of Pyrgita iagoensis. By the time Gould wrote The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle with Darwin and three other zoologists in 1841, he had placed the Iago sparrow in the genus Passer, where it remains. The genus, among the sparrows of the Old World in the family Passeridae, also contains at least 20 other species, among them the house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow.
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An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory. They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can "find their way" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness. Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird. The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.
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In 1991, together with Kees Heij, he discovered a Black-chinned monarch (Monarcha boanensis), a bird that had been thought extinct, on the island of Boano, in the Indonesian province of Maluku. A subsequent Moeliker rediscovery, in 2001, involved the Waigeo brush- turkey (Aepypodius bruijnii) he identified in Waigeo Island, West Papua. With Erwin J.O. Kompanje, Moeliker identified and described a subspecies of Long- tongued nectar bat (Macroglossus minimus booensis), of which the known habitat is restricted to the little Island of Boo in the east of Indonesia. Amongst his work for the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Moeliker preserved the Domino Day 2005 sparrow, a protected species of house sparrow that was shot and killed by a hunter after it knocked down a large domino display in Leeuwarden.
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The American robin (Turdus migratorius) and house sparrow (Passer domesticus) are thought to be among the most important reservoir species in N. American and European cities. Brown thrashers (Toxostoma rufum), gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis), northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos), wood thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) and the dove family are among the other common N. American birds in which high levels of antibodies against WNV have been found. WNV has been demonstrated in a large number of mosquito species, but the most significant for viral transmission are Culex species that feed on birds, including Culex pipiens, C. restuans, C. salinarius, C. quinquefasciatus, C. nigripalpus, C. erraticus and C. tarsalis. Experimental infection has also been demonstrated with soft tick vectors, but is unlikely to be important in natural transmission.
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A black cat eating a house sparrow On islands, birds can contribute as much as 60% of a cat's diet. In nearly all cases, however, the cat cannot be identified as the sole cause for reducing the numbers of island birds, and in some instances, eradication of cats has caused a "mesopredator release" effect; where the suppression of top carnivores creates an abundance of smaller predators that cause a severe decline in their shared prey. Domestic cats are, however, known to be a contributing factor to the decline of many species, a factor that has ultimately led, in some cases, to extinction. The South Island piopio, Chatham rail, and the New Zealand merganser are a few from a long list, with the most extreme case being the flightless Lyall's wren, which was driven to extinction only a few years after its discovery.
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In modern terms, certainly the most commonly taken small bird would be the non-native, house sparrow (Passer domesticus). Although not known to be taken profusely in all studied urban locales, house sparrows were the leading prey in a study from Michigan, were nearly a third of observed delivered prey at nests in Victoria, British Columbia (although were outnumbered by robins in prey remains) and reportedly were the leading prey in Milwaukee and in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Flycatchers are not hugely significant in the Cooper's hawk's foods, but the local effect of the hawks on populations can be considerable. For example, willow flycatchers (Empidonax traillii) in California suffered a 76% rate of nest predation, among which Cooper's hawks were a considerable contributor, and dusky flycatchers (Empidonax oberholseri) experienced a rate of 96% predation elsewhere in California, with 25% attributable to Cooper's.
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Within its genus, the Iago sparrow has been considered one of the African 'rufous sparrows', a group which also includes species such as the great sparrow (Passer motitensis). These birds were usually treated as distinct species until Reginald Ernest Moreau, writing in the 1962 Check-list of the Birds of the World, lumped the Iago sparrow and the mainland rufous sparrows as the single species Passer motitensis. This taxonomy was followed frequently until J. Denis Summers- Smith, a world authority on sparrows, argued in the 1980s that the Iago sparrow's many differences in morphology and behaviour, and separation from the other rufous sparrows by about , are sufficient grounds for species status. Studies of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA have since suggested it may be a close relative of the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow and not the rufous sparrows.
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In the general area of the lake, birdwatchers can see a wide variety of waterfowl, songbirds, forest birds, and birds of prey. Waterfowl include mallards, wood duck, American wigeon, northern shoveler, American coot, Barrow's goldeneye, common merganser, hooded mergansers, and Canada geese. Common shore and wetland birds include American dipper, spotted sandpiper, black tern, double- crested cormorant, great blue heron, and sandhill crane. The meadows and forest around the lake are home to American goldfinch, Cassin's finch, pine siskin, red crossbill, Brewers sparrow, house sparrow, song sparrow, yellow- rumped warbler, olive-sided flycatcher, Cordilleran flycatcher, Hammond's flycatcher, dusky flycatcher, mountain chickadee, black-capped chickadee, evening grosbeak, dark-eyed junco, western tanager, American robin, western bluebird, mountain bluebird, hermit thrush, Townsend's solitaire, sage thrasher, golden-crowned kinglet, ruby-crowned kinglet, warbling vireo, house wren, cedar waxwing, barn swallow, cliff swallow, and tree swallow.
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Such variation commonly is at the level of subspecies, varieties or morphs, whereas some variation is too slight or inconsistent for formal recognition. For an example of subspecific variation, consider the so-called "African killer bee", which is the subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata, and the Cape bee, which is the subspecies Apis mellifera capensis; both of them are in the same cosmopolitan species Apis mellifera, but their ranges barely overlap. Other cosmopolitan species, such as the osprey and house sparrow, present similar examples, but in yet other species there are less familiar complications: some migratory birds such as the Arctic tern occur from the Arctic to the Southern Ocean, but at any one season of the year they are likely to be largely in passage or concentrated at only one end of the range. Also, some such species breed only at one end of the range.
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A male common chaffinch About half of the European birds are passerines of the songbirds suborder. The more common of these include larks (skylark, crested lark, woodlark), swallows (barn swallow, sand martin, house martin), Motacillidae (tree pipit, meadow pipit, white wagtail, yellow wagtail), shrikes (red-backed shrike, great grey shrike), golden oriole, European starling, crows (magpie, jackdaw, hooded crow, rook, Eurasian jay), white- throated dipper, dunnock, Eurasian wren, Eurasian nuthatch, goldcrest, several warblers (reed warbler, sedge warbler, great reed-warbler, icterine warbler, Cetti's warbler, garden warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, chiffchaff), Old World flycatchers (pied flycatcher, spotted flycatcher, northern wheatear, whinchat, European stonechat), finches (common chaffinch, goldfinch, siskin, Eurasian bullfinch, greenfinch, common crossbill, linnet), sparrows (house sparrow, tree sparrow), buntings, (corn bunting, ortolan bunting, reed bunting, yellowhammer), tits (great tit, blue tit, coal tit).Bruun B. & Singer A. (1972). The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe. Hamlyn.
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Wilhelm Meise (12 September 1901 in Essen - 24 August 2002 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist.Haffer, Jurgen (2003) "In memoriam: Wilhelm Meise, 1901-2002" The Auk, 120(2): 540. (Apr 2003) He studied at the University of Berlin from 1924–1928, where he did his Ph.D. dissertation on the distribution of the carrion crow and the hooded crow, and hybridization between them under the supervision of Professor Erwin Stresemann, (1889–1972). . He also analysed taxonomic and historic relationships between the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow in particular the status of the "Italian sparrow". He was curator of vertebrates at the Museum of Natural History in Dresden from 1929 until World War II. Meise produced the first review of bird species new to science in 1934 at the eighth International Ornithological Congress (IOC), followed by an update at the ninth IOC in 1938. Meise, W. (1934) "Fortschritte der ornithologischen Systematik seit 1920" Proc.
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The Eurassian Magpie, a common sight in Kargil A Marmot, Found in wild in Ladakh Kargil is home to many endangered wildlife species like snow leopard (Panthera uncia), Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus langier), Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus), Asiatic ibex (Capra ibex), Ladakh urial (Ovis vignei vignei), musk deer (Moschus spp.), pikas, marmots and hares. Aishwarya Maheshwari of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is quoted as saying, "It is here in Kargil that one of world's most elusive creatures, the snow leopard, roams wild and free. During my research I have learnt about the tremendous decline in wildlife sightings since the 1999 Kargil war, so much so that even the common resident birds had disappeared." Besides these endangered form of life various species of birds including the black necked magpie, house sparrow, hoopoe, rosefinches, red-billed choughs, eastern chiffchaff, common sandpiper and European goldfinches are a common sight in the summer.
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Vertebrate animals observed on the island include mammals, birds and reptiles. As of 1980 and 1990, mammals are represented by New Zealand fur seals and Australian sea lions who use the island as a haul-out site. Observations of both species published in 2014 advise that only fur seals have been using the island in the recent past as a breeding colony.DEH, 2006, page 64Robinson et al, 1996, pages 383Goldsworthy et al, 2013, page 2Shaughnessy et al, 2014, page 31 As of 2006, birds were represented by the following species: Australian kestrel, Australian raven, barn owl, black cormorant, Cape Barren geese, common starling, crested tern, fork-tailed swift, house sparrow, masked lapwing, Pacific gull, rock parrot, ruddy turnstone, short-tailed shearwater, silvereye, silver gull, welcome swallow, white-faced heron, white-faced storm petrel and breeding populations of the following species: little penguin, sooty oystercatcher, white-faced storm petrel and short-tailed shearwater.
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Birds in Simi Valley include Anna's hummingbird, Canada goose, mallard, California quail, common egret, great blue heron, American bittern, American coot, killdeer, mourning dove, roadrunner, belted kingfisher, black phoebe, barn swallow, cliff swallow, common raven, crow, white-breasted nuthatch, cactus wren, mockingbird, robin, cedar waxwing, phainopepla, starling, least Bell's vireo, hooded oriole, western tanager, several species of blackbird (western meadowlark, Brewer's blackbird and brown-headed cowbird) and woodpeckers (common flicker, Nuttall's woodpecker, acorn woodpecker, and yellow-bellied sapsucker). Raptors include turkey vulture, white-tailed kite, American kestrel, poor-will and several species of hawks (Cooper's hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, marsh hawk, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, and the common nighthawk) and owls (great horned owl, short-eared owl, long-eared owl, barn owl, and the burrowing owl). Grosbeaks, finches and sparrows include black-headed grosbeak, house finch, American goldfinch, lesser goldfinch, California towhee, Savannah sparrow, sage sparrow, dark-eyed junco, white-crowned sparrow and the house sparrow.
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The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a widespread predator Predators of the Eurasian tree sparrow include a variety of accipiters, falcons and owls, such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk, common kestrel, little owl, and sometimes long-eared owl and white stork. It does not appear to be at an increased risk of predation during its autumn moult, despite having fewer flight feathers at that time. Nests may be raided by Eurasian magpies, jays, least weasels, rats, cats, and constricting snakes such as the horseshoe whip snake.Cordero, P. J.; Salaet, M. "Breeding season, population and reproduction rate of the tree sparrow (Passer montanus, L.) in Barcelona, NE Spain." in Cordero, P. J. "Predation in House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow (Passer sp.) nests" in Many species of bird lice are present on the birds and in their nests, and mites of the genus Knemidocoptes have been known to infest populations, resulting in lesions on the legs and toes.
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Lawrence Marine Park until the Île d'Orléans (French for Orleans Island), such as the blue whale, the beluga, the minke whale and the harp seal (earless seal). Among the Nordic marine animals, there are two particularly important to cite: the walrus and the narwhal. Snowy owl, the official bird of Quebec Inland waters are populated by small to large fresh water fish, such as the largemouth bass, the American pickerel, the walleye, the Acipenser oxyrinchus, the muskellunge, the Atlantic cod, the Arctic char, the brook trout, the Microgadus tomcod (tomcod), the Atlantic salmon, the rainbow trout, etc. Among the birds commonly seen in the southern inhabited part of Quebec, there are the American robin, the house sparrow, the red-winged blackbird, the mallard, the common grackle, the blue jay, the American crow, the black-capped chickadee, some warblers and swallows, the starling and the rock pigeon, the latter two having been introduced in Quebec and are found mainly in urban areas.
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Bird species to be found in the area include: Cape gannet, white-breasted cormorant, Cape cormorant, grey heron, hadeda ibis, black-shouldered kite, jackal buzzard, peregrine falcon, rock kestrel, Cape spurfowl, helmeted guineafowl, blue crane. Just outside Dana Bay, towards Vleesbaai are: African black oystercatcher, white-fronted plover, spotted thick-knee, kelp gull, Sandwich tern, speckled pigeon, red-eyed dove, laughing dove, Cape turtle dove, Knysna turaco not a common visitor, Burchell's coucal, spotted eagle-owl, speckled mousebird, red-faced mousebird, brown-hooded kingfisher, African hoopoe, barn swallow, greater striped swallow, common house martin, fork-tailed drongo, pied crow, white-necked raven, Cape penduline tit, Cape bulbul, sombre greenbul, Cape rock thrush, Cape robin-chat, bar-throated apalis, tawny- flanked prinia, karoo prinia, fiscal flycatcher, Cape wagtail, common fiscal, southern boubou, southern tchagra, bokmakierie, common starling, Cape sugarbird, malachite sunbird, southern double-collared sunbird, greater double-collared sunbird, amethyst sunbird, Cape white-eye, house sparrow, Cape sparrow, Cape weaver, yellow bishop, swee waxbill, pin-tailed whydah, Cape canary, yellow canary, streaky-headed seedeater and the Cape bunting.
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The red- necked falcon usually hunts in pairs, often at dawn and dusk, sometimes utilizing a technique in which one of the pair flies low and flushes up small birds while the other follows higher up and seizes the prey as it flushes from cover. They fly with a fast and dashing flight. It prefers to prey on birds found in open areas and some of the species it has been recorded to hunt are Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), white-browed wagtail (Motacilla madaraspatensis), rosy starling (Sturnus roseus), chestnut-tailed starling (Sturnus malabaricus), Indian cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus), Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius), ashy-crowned finch-lark (Eremoptrix griseus), besides robins, quails, babblers, swifts, bulbuls, pipits, larks (mainly Calandrella, Alauda, Galerida sp.), pied cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus), rock pigeon (Columba livia), collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), laughing dove (Streptopelia senegelensis), brown crake (Lanius cristatus), tailor bird (Orthotomus sutorius), brown shrike (Lanius cristatus), white-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), little stint (Calidris minuta), plain martin (Riparia paludicola) and pied bushchat (Saxicola caprata). In addition mice, lizards, large insects are also taken.
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At Samsonvale Cemetery, SE Queensland The superb fairywren is common throughout most of the relatively wet and fertile south-eastern corner of the continent, from the south-east of South Australia (including Kangaroo Island and Adelaide) and the tip of the Eyre Peninsula, through all of Victoria, Tasmania, coastal and sub-coastal New South Wales and Queensland, through the Brisbane area and extending inland – north to the Dawson River and west to Blackall; it is a common bird in the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. It is found in wooded areas, generally with plenty of undergrowth, and has also adapted to urban existence and can be found in gardens and urban parks as long as there is an undergrowth of native plants nearby. Lantana (Lantana camara), a prolific weed in Australia, has also been beneficial in providing shelter in disturbed areas, as has the introduced and invasive blackberry Unlike other fairywrens, it appears to benefit from the urban environment and has out-competed the introduced house sparrow in one study on the grounds of the Australian National University in Canberra. Colonies of wrens can be found in Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney's urbanized centre.
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Tibetan snowcock, Tibetan partridge, mute swan, greylag goose, bar-headed goose, ruddy shelduck, mallard, Eastern spot-billed duck, common teal, common pochard, common merganser, hoopoe, Pacific swift, little owl, hill pigeon, red collared dove, black-necked crane, Tibetan sandgrouse, Chinese monal, common redshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, ibisbill, little ringed plover, lesser sand plover, Pallas's gull, brown- headed gull, common tern, black kite, bearded vulture, Himalayan vulture, cinereous vulture, common buzzard, upland buzzard, steppe eagle, golden eagle, greater spotted eagle, eastern imperial eagle, Pallas fish eagle, common kestrel, merlin, saker falcon, peregrine falcon, great crested grebe, little egret, grey heron, black stork, ground tit, red-billed chough, common raven, Sichuan jay, white-throated dipper, black redstart, Hodgson's redstart, Daurian redstart, white-winged redstart, white-capped water redstart, common starling, wallcreeper, sand martin, Asian house martin, white-browed tit warbler, Tibetan lark, Oriental skylark, horned lark, house sparrow, Eurasian tree sparrow, white-winged snowfinch, Tibetan snowfinch, white-rumped snowfinch, rufous-necked snowfinch, plain-backed snowfinch, white wagtail, citrine wagtail, Richard's pipit, alpine accentor, robin accentor, brown accentor, twite, Brandt's mountain finch, common rosefinch, streaked rosefinch, great rosefinch, red-fronted rosefinch.
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The male bird can be easily recognized by its bright yellow and black feathers. The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) can be observed over all open areas with flat wings spread and then pouncing down with closed wings on its prey of mice or other small mammals. Other observed bird species:Adviser Mr. Alfred Forstinger: Vogelkundliche Nachrichten OÖ – Naturschutz aktuell (Ornithologic news of Upper Austria) VNO 9/2/2001, p. 39 – 50 Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), grey partridge (Perdix perdix), pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), quail (Coturnix coturnix), moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), wood pigeon (Columba palumbus), great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), skylark (Alauda arvensis), wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), robin (Erithacus rubecula), black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), blackbird (Turdus merula), song thrush (Turdus philomelos), garden warbler (Sylvia borin), blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), goldcrest (Regulus regulus), common firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus), spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), marsh tit (Poecile palustris), blue tit (Parus caeruleus), great tit (Parus major), coal tit (Periparus ater), short-toed treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla), starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), European magpie (Pica pica), carrion crow (Corvus corone), tree sparrow (Passer montanus), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), greenfinch (Carduelis chloris), goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) und reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus).
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Numerous varieties of birds are found in Madhu Road including Alexandrine parakeet, ashy-crowned sparrow- lark, ashy prinia, ashy woodswallow, Asian koel, Asian palm swift, baya weaver, black drongo, black-hooded oriole, black-rumped flameback, black- winged kite, blue-faced malkoha, brahminy kite, brown-headed barbet, changeable hawk-eagle, common emerald dove, common iora, common myna, common tailorbird, common woodshrike, coppersmith barbet, crested honey buzzard, crimson-fronted barbet, greater coucal, greater racket-tailed drongo, green bee-eater, green imperial pigeon, grey-breasted prinia, house crow, house sparrow, Indian paradise flycatcher, Indian peafowl, Indian robin, Indian roller, Jerdon's bush lark, Jerdon's leafbird, jungle crow, jungle prinia, large cuckooshrike, Malabar pied hornbill, orange-breasted green pigeon, oriental magpie-robin, paddyfield pipit, plain prinia, Sri Lanka green pigeon, purple sunbird, red-rumped swallow, red-vented bulbul, red-wattled lapwing, rock dove, rose-ringed parakeet, scaly-breasted munia, shikra, small minivet, spotted dove, Sri Lanka grey hornbill, Sri Lankan junglefowl, tawny-bellied babbler, white-bellied sea eagle, white-browed bulbul, white-browed fantail, white-rumped munia, white-rumped shama, yellow-billed babbler, yellow-eyed babbler and Zitting cisticola. Mammals found in the park include Asian elephant, bear, chevrotain, chital, golden jackal, grey langur, grizzled giant squirrel, Indian grey mongoose, Indian hare, Indian palm squirrel, leopard, muntjac, purple-faced langur, ruddy mongoose, toque macaque, water buffalo and wild boar.
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