House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) - BirdLife species factsheet

House Sparrow Passer domesticus

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note
Passer domesticus and P. italiae (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as P. domesticus following AERC TAC (2003); AOU (1998 and supplements); Christidis and Boles (2008); Cramp et al. (1977-1994); Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993); SACC (2005 and updates); Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993); Stotz et al. (1996); Turbott (1990).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2016	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	24 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	68,500,000 km²	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	75,200,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	896000000-1310000000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2012
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	6 years	-	-	-

Population justification: Rich et al. (2004) estimated the global population at > c.540,000,000 individuals. However, the European population is estimated at 134,000,000-196,000,000 pairs, which equates to 269,000,000-392,000,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). Europe forms approximately 30% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 896,000,000-1,310,000,000 mature individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed. National population sizes have been estimated at c.100-100,000 breeding pairs in China and c.100-100,000 breeding pairs in Russia (Brazil 2009).

Trend justification: In Europe, trends between 1980 and 2013 show that populations have undergone a moderate decline (EBCC 2015).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native		yes
Albania	extant	native		yes
Algeria	extant	native	yes
Andorra	extant	native	yes
Anguilla (to UK)	extant	introduced	yes
Argentina	extant	introduced	yes
Armenia	extant	native		yes
Aruba (to Netherlands)	extant	introduced	yes
Australia	extant	introduced		yes
Austria	extant	native	yes
Azerbaijan	extant	native	yes
Bahamas	extant	introduced	yes
Bahrain	extant	native	yes
Belarus	extant	native	yes
Belgium	extant	native	yes
Belize	extant	introduced	yes
Bermuda (to UK)	extant	introduced	yes
Bhutan	extant	native		yes
Bolivia	extant	introduced	yes
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (to Netherlands)	extant	introduced	yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina	extant	native		yes
Brazil	extant	introduced	yes
British Indian Ocean Territory	extant	introduced		yes
Bulgaria	extant	native	yes
Cambodia	extant	native	yes
Canada	extant	introduced	yes
Cape Verde	extant	native		yes
Cayman Islands (to UK)	extant	introduced	yes
Chile	extant	introduced	yes
China (mainland)	extant	native		yes
Colombia	extant	introduced	yes
Comoros	extant	introduced		yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native		yes
Costa Rica	extant	introduced	yes
Croatia	extant	native	yes
Cuba	extant	introduced	yes
Curaçao (to Netherlands)	extant	introduced	yes
Cyprus	extant	native	yes
Czechia	extant	native	yes
Denmark	extant	native	yes
Dominican Republic	extant	introduced	yes
Ecuador	extant	introduced	yes
Egypt	extant	native	yes
El Salvador	extant	introduced	yes
Eritrea	extant	native	yes
Estonia	extant	native	yes
Eswatini	extant	introduced		yes
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	extant	introduced	yes
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	native	yes
Finland	extant	native	yes
France	extant	native	yes
Gambia	extant	native		yes
Georgia	extant	native		yes
Germany	extant	native	yes			yes
Gibraltar (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Greece	extant	native	yes
Guadeloupe (to France)	extant	native	yes
Guatemala	extant	introduced	yes
Haiti	extant	introduced	yes
Honduras	extant	introduced	yes
Hungary	extant	native	yes
Iceland	extant	native	yes
India	extant	native		yes
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes
Iraq	extant	native	yes
Ireland	extant	native	yes
Israel	extant	native		yes
Jamaica	extant	introduced	yes
Japan	extant	vagrant			yes
Jordan	extant	native	yes
Kazakhstan	extant	native		yes
Kuwait	extant	native	yes
Kyrgyzstan	extant	native		yes
Laos	extant	native		yes
Latvia	extant	native	yes
Lebanon	extant	native	yes
Lesotho	extant	introduced		yes
Libya	extant	native	yes
Liechtenstein	extant	native	yes
Lithuania	extant	native	yes
Luxembourg	extant	native	yes
Malawi	extant	introduced	yes
Maldives	extant	introduced		yes
Mauritius	extant	introduced		yes
Mexico	extant	introduced	yes
Moldova	extant	native	yes
Mongolia	extant	native		yes
Montenegro	extant	native		yes
Morocco	extant	native	yes
Myanmar	extant	native		yes
Nepal	extant	native		yes
Netherlands	extant	native	yes
New Caledonia (to France)	extant	introduced		yes
New Zealand	extant	introduced		yes
Nicaragua	extant	introduced	yes
Nigeria	extant	native	yes
North Macedonia	extant	native	yes
Norway	extant	native		yes
Oman	extant	native	yes
Palestine	extant	native	yes
Panama	extant	introduced	yes
Paraguay	extant	introduced	yes
Peru	extant	native	yes
Poland	extant	native		yes
Portugal	extant	native	yes
Puerto Rico (to USA)	extant	introduced	yes
Qatar	extant	native	yes
Réunion (to France)	extant	introduced		yes
Romania	extant	native	yes
Russia	extant	native	yes	yes
Russia (Asian)	extant	native		yes
Russia (Central Asian)	extant	native	yes
Russia (European)	extant	native		yes
Saudi Arabia	extant	native	yes
Senegal	extant	introduced	yes
Serbia	extant	native		yes
Seychelles	extant	introduced	yes
Singapore	extant	introduced	yes
Sint Maarten (to Netherlands)	extant	introduced	yes
Slovakia	extant	native	yes
Slovenia	extant	native	yes
Somalia	extant	native	yes
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	extant	introduced	yes
South Sudan	extant	native	yes
Spain	extant	native	yes
Sri Lanka	extant	native	yes
St Pierre and Miquelon (to France)	extant	introduced	yes
Sudan	extant	native
Sweden	extant	native	yes
Switzerland	extant	native	yes
Syria	extant	native	yes
Tajikistan	extant	native		yes
Tanzania	extant	introduced	yes
Thailand	extant	native		yes
Tunisia	extant	native	yes
Türkiye	extant	native	yes
Turkmenistan	extant	native		yes
Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK)	extant	introduced	yes
Ukraine	extant	native	yes
United Arab Emirates	extant	native	yes
United Kingdom	extant	native	yes
Uruguay	extant	introduced		yes
USA	extant	introduced		yes
Uzbekistan	extant	native		yes
Vanuatu	extant	introduced		yes
Venezuela	extant	introduced	yes
Vietnam	extant	vagrant			yes
Virgin Islands (to UK)	extant	introduced	yes
Virgin Islands (to USA)	extant	introduced	yes
Yemen	extant	native	yes
Zimbabwe	extant	introduced	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Irrigated Land (includes irrigation channels)	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Urban Areas	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Forest	Temperate	suitable	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks)		suitable	resident
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Moist	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 4500 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Medicine - human & veterinary	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: House Sparrow Passer domesticus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/house-sparrow-passer-domesticus on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.