Iago Sparrow
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The Iago sparrow (''Passer iagoensis''), also known as the Cape Verde or rufous-backed sparrow, is a
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to the
Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
archipelago, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean near western Africa. Females and young birds have brown plumage with black marks above, and a dull grey underside, and are distinguished from other species of sparrow by their large, distinct
supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
. Males have a brighter underside and bold black and chestnut stripes on their head. At long, it is a smaller sparrow. This bird's vocalisations are mostly variations on its chirp, which differ somewhat between males and females. The Iago sparrow was once thought to be most closely related to the rufous sparrows, a group of species within the genus ''
Passer ''Passer'' is a genus of Old World sparrow, sparrows, also known as the true sparrows. The genus contains 28 species and includes the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow, two of the most common birds in the world. They are small birds wi ...
'' which live in similar habitats on continental Africa. Though the Iago sparrow is closest to the rufous sparrows in appearance, it has a number of crucial differences in morphology and behavior, and is separated by thousands of kilometres. It may in fact be more closely related to the
house sparrow The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the Old World sparrow, sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pa ...
and Spanish sparrow. In Cape Verde it occurs on all but one island, and on most of them it is quite common. The Iago sparrow occurs in most of the habitats that are available in its range, such as lava plains, rocky hills, and gorges; however, the house sparrow and Spanish sparrow are typically present instead in denser settlements and richer cultivated areas respectively. Because the Iago sparrow is not under any serious threats, it is assessed as
Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
on the
IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
.


Description

The Iago sparrow is a small sparrow, long, with a wing length of . Its plumage is similar to that of the
house sparrow The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the Old World sparrow, sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pa ...
, and it similarly is
sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...
. The male has a black or greyish-black
crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
and eyestripe, a grey nape and a small patch of white on the lower forehead. The sides of its head, especially above the eye, are a rich cinnamon colour. The
scapular A scapular () is a Western Christian garment suspended from the shoulders. There are two types of scapulars, the monastic and devotional scapular; both forms may simply be referred to as "scapular". As an object of popular piety, a scapular ...
s are white and brown, while the rest of the upperparts are brown, streaked with black and beige. The cheeks and underparts are pale grey, and the throat and chin are marked with a small black bib. The female is grey-brown, with black-streaked wings and breast, and pale grey underparts. It is very similar to the female house sparrow but has a more apparent pale
supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
(stripe over the eye). The juvenile resembles the adult female, but young males are more
chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...
from an early age, with a trace of a black bib on the chin. In 1898, ornithologist Boyd Alexander reported that adults begin
moulting In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at ...
in early February, and some birds were still in moult by late May. The Iago sparrow's vocalisations include calls, varying between the sexes, elaborations of these called 'songs', and an alarm call. Calls are chirps, somewhat similar to those of other sparrows, the usual version made by males described as a "twangy" or "chew-weep", and that of females described as a "more sibilant" '. The song is a long, elaborated series of notes, and is made by breeding males in their nests. An
alarm call "Alarm Call" is a song recorded by Icelandic singer Björk for her third studio album ''Homogenic'' (1997). It was released as the fourth single from the album, peaking at number 33 in the United Kingdom. The sped-up radio edit of the song was us ...
like that of other sparrows, transcribed ', is also used.


Taxonomy

The Iago sparrow was first collected by
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
during the first stop of the second voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' at the island of
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
(St. Iago). It was described for him in 1837 by zoologist
John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould (illustrator), Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, includ ...
, in the '' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'', and given the name of ''Pyrgita iagoensis''. By the time Gould wrote '' The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle'' with Darwin and three other zoologists in 1841, he had placed the Iago sparrow in the
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''
Passer ''Passer'' is a genus of Old World sparrow, sparrows, also known as the true sparrows. The genus contains 28 species and includes the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow, two of the most common birds in the world. They are small birds wi ...
'', where it remains. The genus, among the sparrows of the Old World in the
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Passeridae, also contains at least 20 other species, among them the house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow. Within its genus, the Iago sparrow has been considered one of the African 'rufous sparrows', a group which also includes species such as the great sparrow (''Passer motitensis''). These birds were usually treated as distinct species until Reginald Ernest Moreau, writing in the 1962 ''Check-list of the Birds of the World'', lumped the Iago sparrow and the mainland rufous sparrows as the single species ''Passer motitensis''. This taxonomy was followed frequently until J. Denis Summers-Smith, a world authority on sparrows, argued in the 1980s that the Iago sparrow's many differences in morphology and behaviour, and separation from the other rufous sparrows by about , are sufficient grounds for species status. Studies of
mitochondrial A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used ...
and
nuclear DNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. ...
have since suggested it may be a close relative of the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow and not the rufous sparrows. French ornithologist Émile Oustalet described a specimen from Branco as a separate species ''Passer brancoensis'' in 1883, which was recognised as the
subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
''Passer iagoensis brancoensis'' by W. R. P. Bourne, who claimed to observe differences between Iago sparrows from different islands. According to Bourne, birds of ''Passer iagoensis iagoensis'' on more wooded islands in the south are darker and larger, and also behave more like house or Spanish sparrows, competing with them better in human-altered habitats. He later wrote that the variations he saw comprised two clinal trends, of increasing darkness towards the south, and of smaller size further from the continental coast. Charles Vaurie, examining differences in plumage and measurements of specimens in major museums, did not find any significant variation, and neither Vaurie nor Summers-Smith recognised any subspecies.


Distribution and habitat

The Iago sparrow is
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to the archipelago of
Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
. It is common on most islands, excluding Fogo (from which it is absent) and Santa Luzia, Branco and Sal (on which it is scarce). The Iago sparrow is found commonly in a variety of habitats, including flat lava plains, coastal cliffs, gorges, and the edges of farmland, at altitudes of up to . It also occurs in settled areas and gardens, where it may overlap somewhat with the house sparrow, but usually not with the Spanish sparrow. The Spanish sparrow occurs in richer cultivated land with larger trees and villages, restricting the Iago sparrow to more arid cultivated land with smaller trees. In settlements where both the house sparrow and Iago sparrow occur, house sparrows tend to occupy the denser areas, while Iago sparrows are found primarily around trees and open spaces. In agricultural areas the Iago sparrow may do some damage to crops, mostly by eating buds and shoots. The Iago sparrow is highly common within its limited range, though its exact population is not known. Though the size of its range means it may be at risk to unpredicted changes in its environment, it is assessed as
Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
by the
IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
. In May 2013 four
vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...
Iago sparrows were seen at Hansweert, in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, having flown onto a ship as it passed by the island of Raso.


Behaviour

The Iago sparrow is gregarious while foraging and breeding. Outside of the breeding season, Iago sparrows are always in flocks, which may be of considerable size. It flocks with other birds, even warblers such as the
blackcap The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla'') is a bird usually known simply as the blackcap. It is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences across the five subspec ...
and the Cape Verde warbler. The Iago sparrow is not very shy toward humans, allowing them to approach, even while it is at its nest. Birds on the isolated and uninhabited island of Raso will even perch on human visitors with little fear. Because of the scarcity of water to drink in its habitat, it has a strong attraction to sources of water, and large flocks may congregate when humans provide water it can drink. It often is seen dust bathing in small groups, a behavior necessary to keep clean with a paucity of water. The adult Iago sparrow feeds mainly on the seeds of
grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...
and
grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...
(the main cereal crop grown in Cape Verde is
maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
), but also on insects and plant shoots. They can do damage to crops by eating young leaves, and like house sparrows will eat the food scraps available near houses. Nestlings, by contrast to adults, are fed almost exclusively on insects, especially
caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...
s,
flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...
, and
orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...
ns. The Iago sparrow forages mostly on the ground, moving restlessly whilst clinging to the ground like a
mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
.


Breeding

The breeding season generally begins in August and September with the onset of the humid season, but the climate during a particular year may change the timing of breeding. On Cima, W. R. P. Bourne observed females remaining in flocks while males began to take up locations on rocky slopes from which they could sing. The breeding season is typically long enough that some pairs may be fledging young before others even start to build a nest; the greatest number of pairs breed when rains come, in October to November. Unmated males attract females by calling out beside a prospective nest site. When approached by a female, the displaying male will increase the intensity of his calls and hop around her while crouching with chestnut rump- and shoulder-feathers exposed. The male begins building the nest, but once a pair is formed both birds of the pair participate in the nest's construction and remain close together. Copulation occurs after the nest has been constructed, while the female is dominant in the pair for a time. The male invites the female to copulate by giving the crouching courtship display, and after ignoring and pecking at him initially, the female solicits copulation by crouching herself. When four vagrants were in the Netherlands in May 2013, a male was seen mounting a second male, apparently after the second crouched submissively to resolve a fight between them. This is the only recorded case of homosexual behaviour in sparrows. Nests are usually built a few metres apart in loose colonies of at most about 10 pairs, although sometimes pairs nest alone. The nest may be built in a range of habitats, and usually is built as a cup in a hole or crevice in a cliff or a wall. They may use suitable human-built structures, such as house eaves and streetlights. The nest is an open structure made of grass, lined with feathers and hairs, packed densely for compactness. Some ornithologists have reported this bird building domed nests in
acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...
trees, but these records may reflect confusion with the Spanish sparrow. The average clutch contains three to five eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs and bring food to their young, but females do more. Eggs are incubated for short spells, around 10 minutes, and males incubate for shorter periods and less often. Though the male accompanies the female when she finds food and brings it to their nestlings, he less often brings any himself; once the young fledge and leave the nest the male is more active feeding them.


References


Works cited

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External links


Media related to the Iago Sparrow
at the Internet Bird Collection * {{Good article Passer Birds described in 1837 Endemic birds of Cape Verde Taxa named by John Gould Fauna of Santo Antão, Cape Verde Fauna of São Vicente, Cape Verde Fauna of São Nicolau, Cape Verde Fauna of Sal, Cape Verde Fauna of Boa Vista, Cape Verde Fauna of Maio, Cape Verde Fauna of Santiago, Cape Verde Fauna of Brava, Cape Verde