Here in the Hunter Valley NSW numerous birdos refer to them as
"Spadgers"
A Brew
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Nick Uren
Sent: Thursday, 20 November 2008 5:29 PM
To: Bill Jolly; ;
Subject: Sparrows
Dear Bill and Philip,
Many thanks for your replies to my
question about sparrows,
it certainly helps clarify and simplify the situation. However, I
have had no responses with respect to local or alternative names for
sparrows which although disappointing is not surprising I suppose in
the sense that most people I ask have no awareness that sparrows are
called anything else. I will keep searching. Thanks again.
Yours sincerely
Nick Uren
On 14/11/2008, at 12:01 AM, Bill Jolly wrote:
> Odd that my posting below, to which Philip refers, hasn't turned up
> in my birding-aus inbox, although Philip's response to my posting
> has! I can't work that out!
>
> Anyway, Philip asked me to clarify what I meant by ".......Tree
> Sparrows (Passer montanus) of Chinese origin, which were introduced
> to Melbourne and Tasmania in small numbers in the 19th century, but
> have long since disappeared."
>
> What I meant, but didn't make clear, was that the Chinese Tree
> Sparrows were likely of the race obscuratus, which I believe has
> long been subsumed into the general mix of races that now makes up
> Passer montanus in Australia.
>
> I'm pretty sure there was a paper in Emu some years back that
> suggested that Aussie Tree Sparrows were an amalgum of at least
> three races, presumably implying that a new trinomial was in order?
>
> I expect this is well-documented somewhere, but I'm not well up on
> taxonomy at that level.
>
> Bill Jolly
>
>
>
>
>
> From:
> To: ; ; birding-
>
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Sparrows
> Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:51:01 +1100
>
>
>
> Very good answer from Bill. I would add that there are of course
> many species of the genus Passer (which are the sparrows, the
> nominate genus of the order, from which the word passerine is
> derived) and only two of those were introduced to Australia.
> America also has another different family of birds, many or maybe
> all of which are called sparrows but these are not the same genus.
>
> The differences between the House Sparrow & Tree Sparrows are far
> greater than just "physical differences between them mostly about
> the head". They are very different in the extent of sexual
> dimorphism and as a corollary or consequence in their social
> behaviour. (This was the subject of a thesis I did a long time
> ago.) The Tree Sparrows being very unusual among a group in which
> most species are sexual dimorphic, in that the female plumage is
> like the typical for the males of the genus.
>
> I would also add that the native finch the Diamond Firetail is also
> unhelpfully called Diamond Sparrow sometimes.
>
> Philip
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