The rock sparrow or rock petronia (''Petronia petronia'') is a small
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 in the sparrow family
Passeridae
Old World sparrows are a group of small passerine birds forming the family Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, a name also used for a particular genus of the family, '' Passer''. They are distinct from both the New World sparrows, ...
. It is the only member of the genus ''Petronia''. It breeds on barren rocky hills from the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
and western north Africa across southern Europe and through the
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
Th ...
Siberia and north and central China. It is largely resident in the west of its range, but Asian birds
migrate
Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration
* Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another
** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
to more southerly areas, or move down the mountains.
Taxonomy
The first
formal description of the rock sparrow was by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in 1766 in the
twelfth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
''. He introduced the
binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...
''Fringilla petronia''. It is now the only species in the genus ''Petronia'' that was introduced by the German naturalist
Johann Jakob Kaup
Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup ...
in 1829.
''Petronia'' is a local name for the rock sparrow from the
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
area of Italy.
Seven
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 ...
are recognised:
[
* ''P. p. petronia'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – Madeira and Canary Islands, south Europe to west Turkey
* ''P. p. barbara'' Erlanger, 1899 – northwest Africa
* ''P. p. puteicola'' Festa, 1894 – south Turkey to Jordan
* ''P. p. exigua'' (]Hellmayr
Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 – 24 February 1944) was an Austrian ornithologist.
Biography
Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete his degree. After his studies he worked in Vie ...
, 1902) – central Turkey to the Caucasus, north Iran and north Iraq
* ''P. p. kirhizica'' Sushkin, 1925 – Caspian Sea to Kyrgyzstan
* ''P. p. intermedia'' Hartert
Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German people, German ornithologist.
Life and career
Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married ...
, 1901 – Iran and north Afghanistan to northwest China
* ''P. p. brevirostris'' Taczanowski, 1874 – Mongolia, south central Siberia and north and central China
Some species have once been classified under Petronia, specifically from the related genus Gymnoris ('' Petronia superciliaris, Petronia dentata, Petronia xanthocollis'') and Carpospiza ('' Petronia brachydactyla'').
Description
The rock sparrow is similar in size to a 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 ...
but with a larger more conical bill. It is around in length, with a strong whitish 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 ...
and weaker crown stripe. It has a patterned brown back and wings, streaked underparts, and a diagnostic, but hard-to-see, yellow throat spot. ''Petronia petronia'' are monochromatic, with a distinctive yellow patch on their upper breast that starkly contrasts the earth tones of their plumage. This carotenoid
Carotenoids () are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, corn, tomatoes, cana ...
-based trait is present in both sexes, and plays an important role during the breeding season, signalling both attractiveness and social status. This bird has a loud wheezy song.
Distribution and habitat
It is a rare vagrant north of its breeding range. There is just a single record from Great Britain, at Cley, Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
on 14 June 1981. This gregarious bird is also found in human settlements in suitable country.
Behaviour
Breeding
It nests in crevices in rocks or walls, laying four to five eggs. Rock sparrows exhibit a variety of mating patterns, most notably monogamy and sequential and simultaneous polyandry
Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives ...
; however, social monogamy is the most abundant mating pattern. The frequencies of these various mating patterns most likely vary with numerous ecological and social factors. Many studies have shown that both males and females prefer a mate with a larger yellow patch. It has also been shown that male brood defence behaviours increase with greater female ornamentation. Males also differentially allocate parental investment according to female ornamentation; this behaviour is not observed in females. In alpine colonies of ''Petronia petronia'', females perform most of the provisioning. In Asian colonies, both males and females contribute equally to the care of the young. Males of larger sizes feed their young at higher rates, which suggests that larger males occupy better territories and/or are better fathers. Studies have found a positive correlation between male yellow breast patch size and nestling tarsus length, which suggests that more ornamented males are also better parents. Females increase the number of non-feeding visits to their nest as the season progresses, suggesting that because females have lesser opportunities to lay other clutches, it is most advantageous to support the survival of their current offspring. A positive relationship between the number of deserting females and the number of available males has been recorded.[
]
Food and feeding
The rock sparrow mainly forages on the ground. It eats seeds throughout the year and berries in autumn. In the spring its diet includes invertebrates, particularly caterpillars and grasshoppers. These are also fed to the young.
References
Sources
*
External links
Rock sparrow
at Madeira Birds
at Oiseaux
Ageing and sexing by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
(PDF; 1.1 MB)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q736313
rock sparrow
Birds of Eurasia
Birds of North Africa
Birds of Macaronesia
rock sparrow
rock sparrow