Chestnut Sparrow

About the Chestnut Sparrow

The chestnut sparrow (Passer eminibey) is a species of passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. It is the smallest member of the sparrow family, at about 11 cm (4.3 in) long. The breeding male has deep chestnut plumage and the female and juvenile are coloured a duller grey with some chestnut markings. Like its closest relatives in the genus Passer, the Arabian golden sparrow and the Sudan golden sparrow, it is gregarious and found in arid areas. Ranging through the east of Africa from Darfur in Sudan to Tanzania, it is found in dry savanna, papyrus swamps, and near human habitation. Adults and juveniles both feed mostly on grass seeds, and fly in flocks, often with other species of birds, to find food. It nests in trees, building its own domed nests, and also usurping the more elaborate nests of weavers.

This species was first described in 1880, by Gustav Hartlaub in the Journal für Ornithologie, as Sorella Emini Bey. Hartlaub gave it the specific name Emini Bey in honour of the explorer Emin Pasha, who collected the type specimen in modern South Sudan or Uganda near Lado, and it is occasionally given the eponymous common name Emin Bey's sparrow... Wikipedia →