No. 344 on our checklistSpanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis)

Look closely at a White Stork nest on a pole in a village of Dobrogea in May, and you may see it is busy with much smaller tenants. In the walls of the big nest of sticks, several pairs of sparrows have built their own nests, and the males sit on the rim, chirping, with chestnut caps and black spotted breasts. These are Spanish Sparrows, the summer sparrows of the south east.

When to see it in the Danube Delta and Dobrogea

1. JanAbsent
2. FebAbsent
3. MarAbsent
4. AprModerate
5. MayModerate
6. JunModerate
7. JulModerate
8. AugModerate
9. SepModerate
10. OctAbsent
11. NovAbsent
12. DecAbsent

Status here

Summer breeder.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern

Our checklist

No. 344 of 385 · see the full checklist

How to recognise it

The male in spring is a House Sparrow with everything turned up. The whole crown and nape are rich chestnut, the cheeks bright white, and the black bib does not stop at the throat: it spreads down over the breast and the flanks in heavy black spots and streaks. The back is streaked black and buff. There is no white collar. The female looks very much like a female House Sparrow, plain brown and buff, but with faint streaks on the breast and flanks.

Spanish Sparrows usually live in flocks and colonies, and their chirping is a little deeper and more rhythmic than that of the House Sparrow. In late summer, mixed flocks of young birds and adults feed in the fields and stubble.

Feeding and nesting

Adults eat mostly seeds, from wild grasses and from cereal fields, and catch insects and caterpillars for their chicks. After the breeding season the flocks move around the farmland in search of ripening grain.

It nests in colonies, sometimes large ones. The nests are untidy balls of grass and straw with a side entrance, built in the crowns of trees and bushes, on electric poles, and very often in the walls of White Stork nests, where many pairs live together under the stork’s protection. The female lays usually four to six eggs, and a pair can raise two broods in a summer.

Where to see it in Dobrogea and the Danube Delta

Spanish Sparrows arrive in April and leave in September. They live in the open country of Dobrogea and at the edges of the Danube Delta, around villages, farms and fields with trees and stork nests, and in some villages inside the Danube Delta, such as Murighiol, Sarinasuf and Caraorman. Our checklist marks it moderate from April to September. The easiest place to find them is a stork nest on a pole at the edge of a village.

You can see it on our birding tour of the Danube Delta and Dobrogea and on our 5 day birdwatching tour in the Danube Delta.

Interesting facts

• Lodgers of the stork. A single White Stork nest can hold several pairs of Spanish Sparrows, built into its walls. The storks do not mind, and the sparrows are safe from many predators.
• The mother of a new species. The Italian Sparrow, which lives in Italy, was born from ancient crossings between Spanish Sparrows and House Sparrows, and is now a species of its own.
• Sparrows that migrate. Unlike the House Sparrow, which stays in its village all year, the Spanish Sparrows of Dobrogea leave for the winter.

Status and threats

The Spanish Sparrow lives around the Mediterranean, in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia, and is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

For the Spanish Sparrow the greatest danger is the chemistry of modern agriculture. Its chicks are raised on insects and caterpillars, and pesticides on the fields take away exactly that food. The loss of hedges and trees around the fields takes away its places to nest.