The Sparrow family evolved in the Afrotropic region in the middle of myocene. Two groups, snow and ground sparrows, probably arose in the Palearctic region. Birds in Africa were divided into two groups: stone and real sparrows, which subsequently colonized Africa and gave rise to secondary colonies in Eurasia.
Organized scientists recognize the five genera of sparrows:
Features of the habitat of the species of sparrows
Snow sparrows
Distributed in Europe and Asia, regularly appear in small quantities in Alaska during migration, shorten the way, flying through the Bering Sea. Some birds that fly away in the fall move south from the American side. Snow sparrows are seen in many states east of the Atlantic coast and south of Colorado.
Earth sparrows
Birds for nests choose semidesert, rocky plains and plateau with short dry grass, outskirts of deserts, are found in the eastern part of internal Mongolia and from Mongolia to Siberian Altai.
Shortfingered sparrows
They prefer arid areas with rare thick vegetation, often in the sparsely populated hilly and mountainous regions of Turkey, the Middle East, from Armenia to Iran, Southern Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Belujistan (Pakistan), are also sometimes found in Kuwait, Saudi Arabian Arabian and Omann. Winter mainly on the Arabian Peninsula and in North-East Africa.
Stone sparrows
Stone areas with short grass, arid and rocky fields, mountainous areas and ruins of antiquity choose for residence. This is a typical Mediterranean view. Stone sparrow lives in southern Europe, from the Pyrenee Peninsula and the western part of North Africa, through southern Europe and before Central Asia. Asian populations migrate south after the reproduction season and winter.
Real sparrows
This species is divided into two large subspecies:
House sparrows
They chose cities, villages, farms. There is no certain place of residence, but always occur near artificial structures, and not in natural habitats. Live in city centers, suburbs, farms, near private houses and enterprises.
Field sparrows
Settled on agricultural veil, villages. In North America, they live in open areas with scattered bushes and trees, in suburban and urban areas. In Europe and Asia, it is found in many types of halfopen habitats, forest edges, villages, farms.
Physical features of sparrows
The Sparrow detachment has short, strong beaks that collect the seeds of herbs and cereal crops. Their languages have a unique skeletal structure that removes the husk from the seeds. These birds are also completely fed when switching to an adult stage of life.
The beaks of males change the color from gray to black, when birds become sexually active. Most of the species of the family of sparrows lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Real and stone sparrows have short stupid wings and fly poorly, make short straight flights. Snow and earthen sparrows living in a more open area have in proportion to longer wings with a different number of white feather in plumage, which are noticeably distinguished on demonstration flights characteristic of birds of open areas. Sexual dimorphism in snow, earthen and stone sparrows is practically absent. Only males of stone sparrows have a yellow stain on the throat. On the contrary, real dimorphic sparrows, males are distinguished by black bibs and welldeveloped patterns on their heads.
How sparrows behave
Most sparrows are sociable, gather in large flocks and form colonies. Many species have mixed propagation. Colonial nesting can be observed in Central Asia, where many hundreds of thousands of birds are simultaneously in the places of residence of Vorobyov. In such colonies, the nests are tightly located to each other, up to 200 nests on one tree. Basically, the nests are not located so tightly, their number is limited by the presence of suitable areas with vegetation. More often than 20-30 pairs are laid nearby.
Sparrows indulge in dust in dust and water. Both types are social activities. Flocks of birds alternate an active collection of seeds with a vacation in good shelter. Digging hard seeds, sparrows sit close to each other and maintain social contact with the help of soft twitter.
Food and diet of sparrows
Sparrows eat:
For chicks, parents “steal” animal food. During the reproduction season, adult sparrows eat invertebrates, mainly slowly moving insects, but sometimes they catch prey in flight.
