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Sind sparrow

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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. Its name refers to the province of Sindh, and 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. 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.

Sind sparrow
Male at Head Marala, Punjab, Pakistan
Calls (recorded in Bikaner)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Passeridae
Genus: Passer
Species:
P. pyrrhonotus
Binomial name
Passer pyrrhonotus
Blyth, 1845
Approximate limits of the Sind sparrow's breeding (green) and winter dispersal (sky blue) range, within which it is very local

Within its Indus valley breeding range in Pakistan and western India, the Sind sparrow is patchily distributed in riverine and wetland habitats with thorny scrub and tall grass. During the non-breeding season, some birds enter drier habitats as they disperse short distances from their breeding habitat, or migrate into western Pakistan and the extreme east of Iran. Since this species is fairly common and expanding its range, it is assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. The Sind sparrow is social while feeding and gathers in small groups both while breeding and during winter dispersal. It feeds mostly on seeds and less often on insects, foraging close to the ground. Nests are made in the branches of thorny trees, and are untidy globular masses constructed from grass or other plant matter and lined with softer material. Both sexes are involved in building the nest and caring for the young, and usually raise two clutches of three to five young each breeding season.

Description

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Female in Delhi, India

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 13 cm (5.1 in) long, while the common South Asian subspecies of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus indicus, is 15 cm (5.9 in) long. Wingspans range from 6.2 to 7.0 cm (2.4 to 2.8 in), tails from 4.7 to 5.7 cm (1.9 to 2.2 in), and tarsi measure 1.6–1.9 centimetres (0.63–0.75 in).[2]

The breeding male has a short and narrow black bib and a broad chestnut eye stripe that does not meet the mantle.[3][4] 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.[3] 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.[5][6] The bill is black on the breeding male and pale brown on the non-breeding male and female. With a culmen length of 1.1–1.3 centimetres (0.43–0.51 in), the Sind sparrow is slightly smaller-billed than the house sparrow.[2][3]

The Sind sparrow's chirping chup call is softer, less strident, and higher pitched than that of the house sparrow, and is easily distinguished.[7][8] The song of breeding males includes chirrups interspersed with grating t-r-r-rt notes and short warbles or whistles.[7][8][9]

Taxonomy

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Illustration of a pair by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1888

The Sind sparrow was first formally described by Edward Blyth, from a specimen collected by Alexander Burnes at Bahawalpur in around 1840.[10][11] 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.[12] 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.[2][13] This was probably because of its general similarity to the house sparrow,[2] 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.[14] 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".[15] Hume doubted its distinction, as did other ornithologists.[14] The Sind sparrow was rediscovered by Scrope Berdmore Doig in 1880, in the Eastern Nara district.[16][17][18] Ernst Hartert considered it a subspecies of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus pyrrhonotus, in his Die Vögel der paläarktishen Fauna,[19] but Doig and Claud Ticehurst both found that the two species bred in the same areas without interbreeding.[2][20]

The specific epithet of the Sind sparrow, pyrrhonotus, comes from the Greek purrhos ("flame-coloured"), and -nōtos ("-backed").[21] 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 refers to Sindh, a province now in Pakistan which makes up a large part of the Sind sparrow's range, and the jungle habitat of the bird (in the word's original sense of tangled dry thicket).[2][20] 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.[22]

The Sind sparrow is a member of the genus Passer, which contains the house sparrow and around twenty other species.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25][26] However, studies of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA genes indicate an earlier origin of Passer species, with speciation occurring as early as the late Miocene and early Pliocene, about 5 million years ago. The chestnut sparrow, russet sparrow and saxaul sparrow, which were also considered to be members of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrow" group, are not phylogenetically closely related with the house sparrow. But there is more or less conflict between the two studies (and between different analyses), some clades are not highly supported, and the Sind sparrow was not included, so the evolutionary history of Sind sparrow and its relationship to other sparrow species remain unclear.[27][28]

Hume and Ticehurst observed a resemblance, and a possible relation, between the Sind sparrow and the Dead Sea sparrow of the Middle East and Balochistan.[17][20] William Robert Ogilvie-Grant and Henry Ogg Forbes saw a resemblance to the Abd al-Kuri sparrow, endemic to the island of Abd al-Kuri, in their 1899 description of that species,[29] noted upon by Guy M. Kirwan in a 2008 study.[30]

Distribution and habitat

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Nest at Sultanpur National Park in India

The Sind sparrow 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 north to the Kabul River near Nowshera and the Jhelum near Nurpur Noon, extending east into India as far as the Delhi area.[31][32] It also breeds locally in parts of Pakistan's western province of Balochistan,[31][33] and has been recorded several times in south-eastern Iran.[34][35] The Sind sparrow is somewhat common in its restricted breeding range,[33] and no threats are known to the survival of the species, so it is assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.[1]

During winter, it often makes short-distance movements, and some birds move into parts of western Pakistan and an adjoining corner of Iran, and less commonly north-western Gujarat, India.[3][33][36] Longer movements may occur, as suggested by a possible sighting in the United Arab Emirates in November 2000.[26]

It mostly breeds in acacia and tamarisk scrub and tall grass, invariably near rivers or other wetlands.[37] 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, India.[32][33][38] It may breed around rice paddies and other fields, or human habitations, provided that there is enough cover and suitable nesting sites. In winter, it moves away from its main riverine habitat, and into drier thickets characterised by Salvadora and Capparis bushes, but never moves too far from water.[31]

Behaviour

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The Sind sparrow is gregarious, generally forming small groups of four to six birds while feeding. It tends to breed in loose colonies of a few pairs, and non-breeding birds may gather to roost in acacias or tamarisks near water.[33][39] During winter, the non-breeding season, it forms larger flocks of as many as 30 birds, and joins flocks with other seed-eating birds, such as house sparrows and red avadavats.[39][40] The Sind sparrow feeds mainly on the seeds of grasses and other plants such as Polygonum plebeium. It may also forage for insects such as caterpillars, especially to feed nestlings.[7] Flocks forage on flats alongside rivers, flying into nearby bushes and continuing to forage when disturbed.[8]

Nesting occurs during a period of several months between April and September, the timing depending on rainfall, during which two clutches are raised by most pairs. Sind sparrows build nests in the upper branches of thorny trees or the ends of thin branches hanging over water.[3][20][41] The nest is an untidy dome of grass and other plant matter, such as tamarisk twigs, roots, and reeds, with a diameter of about 9 to 18 cm (3.5 to 7.1 in). The nest has an entrance located higher up on the sides, is somewhat flat on top, and is lined with softer plant material and feathers.[42] The birds may sometimes build below the nests of egrets or extend the nest of a baya weaver or Indian pied myna.[32][43] Both the male and female take part in nest building and incubation.[8] Clutches typically contain three to five eggs.[7] Scrope Doig described the eggs as being markedly smaller than the house sparrow's, measuring 0.7 × 0.5 in (1.3 × 1.8 cm) and similarly greenish or greyish with highly variable blotches, striations, and other markings.[44]

References

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  1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2016). "Passer pyrrhonotus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22718183A94571377. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22718183A94571377.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 194–195
  3. ^ a b c d e Rasmussen & Anderton 2005, p. 575
  4. ^ Currie, A. J. (1916). "The Birds of Lahore and the Vicinity". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 24 (3): 561–577. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  5. ^ Porter, Christensen & Schiermacker-Hansen 1996, p. 410
  6. ^ Oates 1890, pp. 238–239
  7. ^ a b c d Summers-Smith 1988, p. 198
  8. ^ a b c d Ali & Ripley 1999, pp. 76–77
  9. ^ Currie, A. J. (1909). "The Rufous-backed Sparrow (Passer pyrrhonotus) nesting in the Punjab". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 19 (1): 259–260. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  10. ^ Blyth, E. (1845). "Synopsis of Indian Fringillidae". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. XIII (156): 944–963.
  11. ^ Whistler, H. (1925). "A note on the weavers and finches of the Punjab. Part 2". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 30 (2): 406–417. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  12. ^ Dickinson, E. C.; Pittie, A. (21 December 2006). "Systematic notes on Asian birds. 51. Dates of avian names introduced in early volumes of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal". Zoologische Mededelingen. 80–5 (3). Leiden: 113–124. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  13. ^ Blanford 1876, p. 255
  14. ^ a b Hume, A. O. (1880). "Notes". Stray Feathers. 9 (3): 232–234. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  15. ^ Hume 1873, p. 209
  16. ^ Doig, S. B. (1880). "Birds Nesting on the Eastern Narra. Additions and Alterations". Stray Feathers. 9 (4): 277–282. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  17. ^ a b Hume, A. O. (1881). "Passer pyrrhonotus, Blyth". Stray Feathers. 9 (5&6): 442–445. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  18. ^ James, H. E. M. (1893). "Sind as a Field for the Naturalist". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 8: 322–325. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  19. ^ Hartert 1903, p. 151
  20. ^ a b c d Ticehurst 1922, pp. 651–653
  21. ^ Jobling 2010, p. 237
  22. ^ Gill, F.; Donsker, D., eds. (2011). "English Name Updates". IOC World Bird Names (version 2.10). Archived from the original on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  23. ^ Summers-Smith 1992, pp. 3, 6
  24. ^ Meise, Wilhelm (1936). "Zur Systematik und Verbreitungsgeschichte der Haus- und Weidensperlinge, Passer domesticus (L.) und hispaniolensis (T.)". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 84 (4): 631–672. Bibcode:1936JOrni..84..631M. doi:10.1007/BF01951015. S2CID 39371043.
  25. ^ Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 279–280, 288–289, 304–305
  26. ^ a b Summers-Smith 2009, p. 795
  27. ^ Allende, Luis M.; Rubio, Isabel; Ruíz-del-Valle, Valentin; Guillén, Jesus; Martínez-Laso, Jorge; Lowy, Ernesto; Varela, Pilar; Zamora, Jorge; Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio (2001). "The Old World sparrows (genus Passer) phylogeography and their relative abundance of nuclear mtDNA pseudogenes" (PDF). Journal of Molecular Evolution. 53 (2): 144–154. Bibcode:2001JMolE..53..144A. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.520.4878. doi:10.1007/s002390010202. PMID 11479685. S2CID 21782750. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011.
  28. ^ Päckert, Martin; Hering, Jens; Belkacem, Abdelkrim Ait; Sun, Yue-Hua; Hille, Sabine; Lkhagvasuren, Davaa; Islam, Safiqul; Martens, Jochen (31 May 2021). "A revised multilocus phylogeny of Old World sparrows (Aves: Passeridae)". Vertebrate Zoology. 71: 353–366. doi:10.3897/vz.71.e65952. ISSN 2625-8498.
  29. ^ Ogilvie-Grant, W. R.; Forbes, Henry O. (May 1899). "The Expedition to Sokotra I. Descriptions of the New Species of Birds". Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums Under the City Council. II (1): 2–3. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  30. ^ Kirwan, Guy M. (2008). "Studies of Socotran Birds III. Morphological and mensural evidence for a 'new' species in the Rufous Sparrow Passer motitensis complex endemic to the island of Abd 'Al Kuri, with the validation of Passer insularis Sclater & Hartlaub, 1881". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 128 (2): 83–93. Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  31. ^ a b c Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 195–196
  32. ^ a b c Harvey, B; Sharma, S. C. (2002). "The initial colonisation of the Yamuna flood plain by the Sind Sparrow Passer pyrrhonotus". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 99 (1): 35–43.
  33. ^ a b c d e Roberts 1992, pp. 478–480
  34. ^ Scott, Derek A. (2008). "Rare Birds in Iran in the Late 1960s and 1970s" (PDF). Podoces. 3 (1/2): 1–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2011.
  35. ^ Roselaar, Cees S.; Aliabadiani, Mansour (2009). "Review of Rare Birds in Iran, 1860s–1960s" (PDF). Podoces. 4 (1): 1–27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  36. ^ Bapat, N. N. (1992). "Sind Jungle Sparrow Passer pyrrhonotus Blyth in North-West Gujarat". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 89 (3): 378. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  37. ^ Clement, Harris & Davis 1993, p. 448
  38. ^ Sangha, Harkirat Singh; Kulshreshtha, Manoj (2008). "Locations of Sind Sparrow sightings along the Rajasthan Canal and the River Sutlej". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 105 (1): 91–92. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  39. ^ a b Summers-Smith 1988, p. 196
  40. ^ Whistler, H. (1922). "The Birds of Jhang District, S. W. Punjab. Part I. Passerine Birds". The Ibis. 11th series. 4 (2): 259–309. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1922.tb01318.x. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  41. ^ Baker 1926, p. 174
  42. ^ Summers-Smith 1988, pp. 197–198
  43. ^ Jones, A. E. (1912). "Notes on Birds from Lahore". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 21 (3): 1073–1074. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  44. ^ Hume 1889, p. 162

Works cited

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