Sind Sparrow
Encyclopedia
The Sind Sparrow also known as the Sind Jungle Sparrow, Jungle Sparrow, or Rufous-backed Sparrow, is a passerine
bird of the sparrow
family
Passeridae. It is patchily distributed around the Indus valley region of Pakistan
and adjoining parts of India
, where its habitat
is usually tall grass and thorn scrub near water.
, but slightly smaller, with a number of distinguishing features. While the common South Asian subspecies
of the House Sparrow, Passer domesticus indicus, has a body about 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long, the Sind Sparrow is 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long.
The breeding male has a short and narrow black bib and a broad chestnut eye stripe that does not meet the mantle. The male has the crown
and nape grey and the lower back and rump rufous. 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 Jungle Sparrow, but has yellow tinges on the underparts and sometimes on parts of the head. The bill is black and the breeding male and pale brown on the non-breeding male and female. With a culmen length of 1.1–1.25 cm (0.433070866141732–0.492125984251969 in), 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 includes chirrups interspersed with grating t-r-r-rt notes and short warbles or whistles.
from a specimen collected by Alexander Burnes
at Bahawalpur
around 1840. The species was described in an issue of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal which, although dated as 1844, was published only in 1845. It was not recorded for 36 years after it was described, 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 with 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. 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 Eastern Nara district. Ernst Hartert
considered it as a subspecies of the House Sparrow in his Die Vögel der paläarktishen Fauna, but Doig and Claud Ticehurst both found the two species breeding side-by-side.
E. C. Stuart Baker
suggested the English name Rufous-backed Sparrow, but as this name might cause confusion with other species, Ticehurst suggested the name Sind Jungle-Sparrow, which became the accepted name for the species. This name is shortened to Jungle Sparrow or Sind Sparrow, of which the first was used in the IOC World Bird List, until Sind Sparrow was adopted in 2009.
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 center 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 considered that these species probably 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. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA
indicate an earlier origin of sparrow species, with speciation occurring as early as the Miocene
and Pliocene
. Hume and Ticehurst noted a resemblance and possible relation with the Dead Sea Sparrow of the Middle East and Balochistan, and William Robert Ogilvie-Grant
and Henry Ogg Forbes
noted a resemblance to the island endemic Abd al-Kuri Sparrow
in their 1899 description of that species, also remarked upon by Guy M. Kirwan in a 2008 study.
s_nest_at_sultanpur_i_picture_171.jpg)
This species has a restricted distribution, primarily occurring within the Indus valley of Pakistan, and the lower parts of the tributaries of the Indus in the Punjab region
. Its distribution extends from the Indus Delta near Thatta
north to the Kabul River
near Nowshera, extending east into India as far as the Delhi
area. It also breeds locally in parts of Balochistan province, and has been recorded several times in southeastern Iran.
It breeds in acacia
and tamarisk scrub and tall grass, invariably near rivers and other wetlands. The construction and expansion of irrigation canals has increased its habitat in Sindh, and helped it extend its range into the Yamuna
floodplain and parts of Rajasthan
. During winter, it often makes short distance movements, and has been seen in Balochistan, and northwestern Gujarat. Longer movements may occur, as suggested by a possible sighting in the United Arab Emirates
in November 2000.
The Sind Sparrow is somewhat common in its restricted range, and no serious threats are known to its survival, so it as assessed as Least Concern
on the IUCN Red List
.
s or extend the nest of a Baya Weaver
or Asian Pied Starling
. Both the male and female take part in nest building and incubation.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird of the sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Passeridae. It is patchily distributed around the Indus valley region of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and adjoining parts of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, where its habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
is usually tall grass and thorn scrub near water.
Description
Both sexes of the Sind Sparrow are very similar to the House SparrowHouse Sparrow
The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the House Sparrow occurs naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia...
, but slightly smaller, with a number of distinguishing features. While the common South Asian subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of the House Sparrow, Passer domesticus indicus, has a body about 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long, the Sind Sparrow is 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long.
The breeding male has a short and narrow black bib and a broad chestnut eye stripe that does not meet the mantle. The male has the crown
Crown (anatomy)
A crown is the top of the head.The following birds and other animals are said to have a crown on their head:* Cranes** Grey-crowned Crane** Red-crowned Crane** Black-crowned Crane* Crowned eagle* Gray-crowned Rosy Finch* Yellow-crowned Gonolek...
and nape grey and the lower back and rump rufous. 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
Dead Sea Sparrow
The Dead Sea Sparrow , as its name suggests, is a breeding bird around the River Jordan, Dead Sea, and into Iraq, Iran and western Afghanistan. Breeding recorded in Cyprus but is probably extinct there now...
of the subspecies Passer moabiticus yattii is also similar to the female Sind Jungle Sparrow, but has yellow tinges on the underparts and sometimes on parts of the head. The bill is black and the breeding male and pale brown on the non-breeding male and female. With a culmen length of 1.1–1.25 cm (0.433070866141732–0.492125984251969 in), 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 includes chirrups interspersed with grating t-r-r-rt notes and short warbles or whistles.
Taxonomy
The Sind Sparrow was first described by Edward BlythEdward Blyth
Edward Blyth was an English zoologist and pharmacist. He was one of the founders of zoology in India....
from a specimen collected by Alexander Burnes
Alexander Burnes
Captain Sir Alexander Burnes was a Scottish traveller and explorer who took part in The Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara, which made his name.-Early life:He was born in Montrose, Scotland, to the son of the local provost,...
at Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur , located in the province of Punjab, is the twelfth largest city in Pakistan. The city was once the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur. The city was home to various Nawabs and counted as part of the Rajputana states...
around 1840. The species was described in an issue of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal which, although dated as 1844, was published only in 1845. It was not recorded for 36 years after it was described, despite the efforts of noted ornithologists Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume was a civil servant, political reformer and amateur ornithologist in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead the Indian independence movement...
in Sindh and William Thomas Blanford
William Thomas Blanford
William Thomas Blanford was an English geologist and naturalist. He is best remembered as the editor of a major series on The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma.-Biography:Blanford was born in London...
in eastern Iran. This was probably because of its general similarity with the House Sparrow, though additionally, Blyth's description of the species incorrectly described its rump feathers as maroon
Maroon (color)
Maroon is a dark red color.-Etymology:Maroon is derived from French marron .The first recorded use of maroon as a color name in English was in 1789.-Maroon :...
, and a description by Thomas C. Jerdon
Thomas C. Jerdon
Thomas Caverhill Jerdon was a British physician, zoologist and botanist. He is best remembered for his pioneering works on the ornithology of India...
contained similar errors. 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 Eastern Nara district. Ernst Hartert
Ernst Hartert
Ernst Johann Otto Hartert was a German ornithologist. Hartert was born in Hamburg. He was employed by Lionel Walter Rothschild as ornithological curator of his private museum at Tring from 1892 to 1929....
considered it as a subspecies of the House Sparrow in his Die Vögel der paläarktishen Fauna, but Doig and Claud Ticehurst both found the two species breeding side-by-side.
E. C. Stuart Baker
E. C. Stuart Baker
Edward Charles Stuart Baker CIE OBE FZS FLS was a British ornithologist and police officer.-Life and career:Baker was educated at Trinity College, Stratford-upon-Avon and in 1883 followed his father into the Indian Police Service. He spent most of his career in India in the Assam Police, rising to...
suggested the English name Rufous-backed Sparrow, but as this name might cause confusion with other species, Ticehurst suggested the name Sind Jungle-Sparrow, which became the accepted name for the species. This name is shortened to Jungle Sparrow or Sind Sparrow, of which the first was used in the IOC World Bird List, until Sind Sparrow was adopted in 2009.
The Sind Sparrow is a member of the genus Passer
Passer
Passer is a genus of Old World sparrows. These sparrows are plump little brown or greyish birds often with black, yellow or white markings. Typically 10–20 cm long, they have short tails and stubby conical beaks...
, which contains the House Sparrow and around twenty other species. In a 1936 review of the House Sparrow's relatives, German ornithologist Wilhelm Meise
Wilhelm Meise
Wilhelm Meise was a German ornithologist. 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, ....
suggested that the Sind Sparrow evolved from an isolated population of House Sparrows, noting that the Indus valley is a center of small bird types. British ornithologist J. Denis Summers-Smith
J. Denis Summers-Smith
James Denis Summers-Smith is a British ornithologist and mechanical engineer, a specialist both in sparrows and industrial tribology....
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 considered that these species probably 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
Indus River Delta
The Indus River Delta , forms where the Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea in Pakistan. The delta covers an area of about 41,440 km² , and is approximately 210 km across where it meets the sea. The active part of the delta is 6,000 km² in area. The climate is arid, the region only receives...
, where he thought the Sind Sparrow evolved. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
indicate an earlier origin of sparrow species, with speciation occurring as early as the Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
and Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
. Hume and Ticehurst noted a resemblance and possible relation with the Dead Sea Sparrow of the Middle East and Balochistan, and William Robert Ogilvie-Grant
William Robert Ogilvie-Grant
William Robert Ogilvie-Grant was a Scottish ornithologist.-Career:Ogilvie-Grant was educated at Cargilfield and Fettes College, Edinburgh, where he studied zoology and anatomy. In 1882 he became an Assistant at the Natural History Museum. He studied ichthyology under Albert C. L. G...
and Henry Ogg Forbes
Henry Ogg Forbes
Henry Ogg Forbes was a Scottish explorer, ornithologist, and botanist. Educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, he was primarily active in the Moluccas and New Guinea, he served as director of the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand between...
noted a resemblance to the island endemic Abd al-Kuri Sparrow
Abd al-Kuri Sparrow
The Abd al-Kuri Sparrow is a passerine bird endemic to the small island of Abd al Kuri in the Socotra archiplago of the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa. Though this species was originally described as a distinct species, it is usually considered the same as the Socotra Sparrow...
in their 1899 description of that species, also remarked upon by Guy M. Kirwan in a 2008 study.
Distribution and habitat
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
. Its distribution extends from the Indus Delta near Thatta
Thatta
Thatta is a historic town of 220,000 inhabitants in the Sindh province of Pakistan, near Lake Keenjhar, the largest freshwater lake in the country. Thatta's major monuments especially its necropolis at Makli are listed among the World Heritage Sites. The Shah Jahan Mosque is also listed...
north to the Kabul River
Kabul River
Kabul River , the classical Cophes , is a 700 km long river that starts in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan and ends in the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and is separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass...
near Nowshera, extending east into India as far as the Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
area. It also breeds locally in parts of Balochistan province, and has been recorded several times in southeastern Iran.
It breeds in acacia
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
and tamarisk scrub and tall grass, invariably near rivers and other wetlands. The construction and expansion of irrigation canals has increased its habitat in Sindh, and helped it extend its range into the Yamuna
Yamuna
The Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...
floodplain and parts of Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. During winter, it often makes short distance movements, and has been seen in Balochistan, and northwestern Gujarat. Longer movements may occur, as suggested by a possible sighting in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
in November 2000.
The Sind Sparrow is somewhat common in its restricted range, and no serious threats are known to its survival, so it as assessed as Least Concern
Least Concern
Least Concern is an IUCN category assigned to extant taxon or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, Near Threatened, or Conservation Dependent...
on the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
.
Behaviour
The Sind Sparrow is gregarious, generally forming small groups of four to six birds while feeding and at breeding colonies. During winter, the non-breeding season, it forms larger flocks of as many as 30 birds, and joins flocks with other seed-eating birds. The Sind Sparrow feeds mainly on the seeds of grasses and other plants such as Polygonum plebeium. Flocks forage on flats alongside rivers, flying into nearby bushes and continuing to forage when disturbed. The nesting season is April to September and it builds its nests in the upper branches of thorny trees or the ends of thin branches hanging over water. The nest is an untidy dome of grass and it may sometimes build below the nests of egretEgret
An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
s or extend the nest of a Baya Weaver
Baya Weaver
The Baya Weaver is a weaverbird found across South and Southeast Asia. Flocks of these birds are found in grasslands, cultivated areas, scrub and secondary growth and they are best known for their hanging retort shaped nests woven from leaves...
or Asian Pied Starling
Asian Pied Starling
The Asian Pied Starling or Pied Myna is a species of starling found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are usually found in small groups mainly on the plains and low foothills. They are often seen within cities and villages although they are not as bold as the Common Myna. They...
. Both the male and female take part in nest building and incubation.
External links
- Sind Sparrow at the Internet Bird Collection
- Bird Specialties of Pakistan: Sind Sparrow at the Birdwatchers Club of Pakistan
- Sind Sparrow at delhibird.net