Species Sudan Golden Sparrow

Sudan Golden Sparrow

The Sudan golden sparrow (Passer luteus) is a small bird in the sparrow family, found to the south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. It is a popular cage bird, and in aviculture it is known as the golden song sparrow. The Arabian golden sparrow and this species are sometimes considered one species, the golden sparrow.

The Sudan golden sparrow is a smaller sparrow, at 12–13 cm (4.7–5.1 in) in length, with a wingspan of 5.7–7 cm (2.2–2.8 in). Males are distinctive in their bright yellow head and underparts, deep chestnut brown wings and back, and two white wingbars. In the breeding season the male's plumage is brighter still, and the bill changes colour from horn to shiny black.

Females are pale sandy-buff with yellowish face, light brown wings, a back faintly streaked with chestnut, and pale yellow fading to whitish on the underparts. Juveniles are similar to females, but greyer. About 10 weeks after hatching young males may start to get a yellow wash around the shoulder area. Its basic call is a chirp or tchirrup, similar to that of other sparrows. Variations include a song-like call, and a rapid rhythmic che-che-che.

The two golden sparrows are very similar, and have often been treated as the same species. Both are similar to the chestnut sparrow, and all three may once have been only clinally different. The male Arabian golden sparrow is almost entirely gold-coloured, the male chestnut sparrow is mostly chestnut, and the male Sudan golden sparrow is intermediate.[6] British ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen considered even the chestnut sparrow to be conspecific, though the range of the Sudan golden sparrow overlaps with that of the chestnut sparrow without any known interbreeding in a small area of Darfur

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. 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, studies of sparrow mitochondrial DNA indicate that these species are either derived from or are the closest relatives of the Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows.