• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

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

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	A2bce+3bce+4bce

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2018	Vulnerable	A2bce+3bce+4bce
2017	Vulnerable	A2bce+3bce+4bce
2016	Least Concern

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

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence breeding/resident (km2)	1,100,000	medium
Number of locations		-
Severely Fragmented		-

	Value	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
No. of mature individuals	4300000-7300000	poor	estimated	2015
Population trend	Decreasing		suspected	-
Decline (3 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (5 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation future)	30-49	-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation past and future)	30-49	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations		-	-	-
Percentage in largest subpopulation		-	-	-
Generation length (yrs)	6	-	-	-

Population justification: The Italian Red List estimated that there are 10,000,000-20,000,000 individuals in the country (Peronace et al. 2012). In the European Red List of Birds the global population size was estimated to be 2,173,000-3,629,000 pairs, equivalent to 4,346,000-7,258,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015), rounded here to 4,300,000-7,300,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The only country within this species’s range where declines have been noted is Italy (BirdLife International 2015), where the rate of decline has been estimated at 30-40% between 2000 and 2012 (BirdLife International 2015), 47% between 2000 and 2010 (LIPU & Rete Rurale Nazionale 2011), 54.2% between 2000 and 2015 (E. de Carli in litt. 2017), and 50% in northern Italy between 1996 and 2006 (Brichetti et al. 2008). Combining and extrapolating the trend estimates from Italy and other countries produces an overall rate of decline between 36% and 51% over 3 generations (c. 18 years). Therefore, the decline has tentatively been placed in the range 30-49% over 3 generations.

Country/Territory	Occurrence status	Presence	Resident	Breeding	Non-breeding	Passage
Austria	N	Extant	Yes
France	N	Extant	Yes
Greece	N	Extant	Yes
Italy	N	Extant	Yes
Slovenia	N	Extant	Yes
Switzerland	N	Extant	Yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Greece	Mount Koutroulis, Mount Agios Dikaios and Modia plateau, Crete
Greece	Lake Kourna, Almyros delta and Georgioupolis coast, Crete
Greece	Mount Idi, Crete
Italy	Gran Paradiso
Italy	Pian di Spagna and Lake Mezzola

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 - 2200 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation

Purpose	Primary form used	Life stage used	Source	Scale	Level	Timing
Food - human	-	-			Non-trivial	Recent
Medicine - human & veterinary	-	-			Non-trivial	Recent
Pets/display animals, horticulture	-	-		International	Non-trivial	Recent
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	-	-			Non-trivial	Recent

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2022) Species factsheet: Passer italiae. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/01/2022. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2022) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/01/2022.