Iago Sparrow
Encyclopedia
The Iago Sparrow is a passerine
bird of the sparrow
family Passeridae. It is also known as the Cape Verde Sparrow and the Rufous-backed Sparrow. It is endemic to the Cape Verde Islands
, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
and eyestripe, a grey nape and a small patch of white on the lower forehead. The sides of the head, especially above the eye, are a rich cinnamon colour. The 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 stripe over the eye. The juvenile resembles the adult female, but young males are more chestnut from an early age, with a trace of a black bib on the chin. In 1898, British ornithologist Boyd Alexander
reported that adults begin moulting 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" cheesp or chew-weep, and that of females described as a "more sibilant" chisk. The song is a long, elaborated series of call notes, and is made by breeding males in their nests. An alarm call like that of other sparrows, transcribed chur-chur-chur, is also used.
during the first stop of the second voyage of HMS Beagle
at Santiago
island, then called St. Jago. It was described for him by zoologist John Gould
, in the 1837 volume of 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
Passer
, in which it has since been placed. The genus, among the sparrow
s of the Old World in the family
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). Treatments of these birds as distinct species were usually followed until Reginald Ernest Moreau
, writing in the 1962 The Check-list of the Birds of the World, merged the Iago Sparrow and the mainland rufous sparrows as Passer motitensis. This taxonomy was followed frequently until J. Denis Summers-Smith
argued in the 1980s that the Iago Sparrow's many differences in morphology and behaviour, and separation from the other rufous sparrows by about 5000 kilometres (3,106.9 mi) are sufficient grounds for species status. Studies of mitochondrial
and nuclear DNA
further suggest it may be a close relative of the House Sparrow
and the Spanish Sparrow
, rather than the rufous sparrows.
French ornithologist Émile Oustalet
described a specimen from Branco as a separate species Passer brancoensis in 1883, which was recognised as a subspecies
recognised by W. R. P. Bourne, who claimed to observe differences between birds 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 Vaurie and Summers-Smith both did not recognise any subspecies.
. It is common on most islands, excluding Fogo
(from which it is absent) and Santa Luzia
, Branco and Sal
(in which it is scarce). It can be found in a variety of habitats, including flat lava plains, cliffs, gorges, and edges of farmland, at altitudes of up to 1200 metres (3,937 ft). It has also been seen in urban areas and gardens on islands, where it occurs alongside the House Sparrow, but not the Spanish Sparrow. In agricultural areas the bird may do some damage to crops, mostly by eating buds and shoots. The Iago Sparrow is highly common in its limited range, though its exact population is not known. Though it may be at risk to unpredicted changes in its environment, due to its limited range, it is assessed as Least Concern
by the IUCN Red List
.
The adult sparrow feeds mainly on seeds, but also on insects and shoots. Nestlings, by contrast, feeds almost exclusively on insects. It forages mostly on the ground, moving restlessly and close to the ground. It flocks with other birds, even warblers such as the Blackcap
and the Cape Verde Swamp-warbler.
This sparrow's breeding habits are not well known, though they are believed to be similar to those of the House Sparrow. Its breeding season
begins in August and September with the onset of the humid season. The Iago Sparrow builds its nest in a variety of habitats, including lava plain
s, cliffs, and gardens. The nest is made of grass, lined with hair and feathers and usually built in a hole in a cliff or wall. The average clutch is three to five eggs.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird of the sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
family Passeridae. It is also known as the Cape Verde Sparrow and the Rufous-backed Sparrow. It is endemic to the Cape Verde Islands
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Description
The Iago Sparrow is a small sparrow, 12.5 – long, with a wing length of 5.5 –. The male has a black or greyish-black crownCrown (anatomy)
A crown is the top of the head.The following birds and other animals are said to have a crown on their head:* Cranes** Grey-crowned Crane** Red-crowned Crane** Black-crowned Crane* Crowned eagle* Gray-crowned Rosy Finch* Yellow-crowned Gonolek...
and eyestripe, a grey nape and a small patch of white on the lower forehead. The sides of the head, especially above the eye, are a rich cinnamon colour. The scapular
Scapular
The term scapular as used today refers to two specific, yet related, Christian Sacramentals, namely the monastic and devotional scapulars, although both forms may simply be referred to as "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
House Sparrow
The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the House Sparrow occurs naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia...
but has a more apparent pale stripe over the eye. The juvenile resembles the adult female, but young males are more chestnut from an early age, with a trace of a black bib on the chin. In 1898, British ornithologist Boyd Alexander
Boyd Alexander
Boyd Alexander was an English British Army officer, explorer and ornithologist.Lieutenant Boyd Francis Alexander was the oldest son of Lt Colonel Boyd Francis Alexander...
reported that adults begin moulting 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" cheesp or chew-weep, and that of females described as a "more sibilant" chisk. The song is a long, elaborated series of call notes, and is made by breeding males in their nests. An alarm call like that of other sparrows, transcribed chur-chur-chur, is also used.
Taxonomy
The Iago Sparrow was first collected by Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
during the first stop of the second voyage of HMS Beagle
Second voyage of HMS Beagle
The second voyage of HMS Beagle, from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836, was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide...
at Santiago
Santiago, Cape Verde
Santiago , or Santiagu in Cape Verdean Creole, is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation’s population. At the time of Darwin's voyage it was called St. Jago....
island, then called St. Jago. It was described for him by zoologist John Gould
John Gould
John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
, in the 1837 volume of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London
Journal of Zoology
The Journal of Zoology is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted towards general readers...
, 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
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Passer
Passer
Passer is a genus of Old World sparrows. These sparrows are plump little brown or greyish birds often with black, yellow or white markings. Typically 10–20 cm long, they have short tails and stubby conical beaks...
, in which it has since been placed. The genus, among the sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
s of the Old World in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
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). Treatments of these birds as distinct species were usually followed until Reginald Ernest Moreau
Reginald Ernest Moreau
Reginald Ernest Moreau, , was an English ornithologist.Moreau was among the pioneering ornithologists who focused on life history studies of birds. In 1944 he suggested in a paper in the Ibis that birds laid larger clutches of eggs in the higher latitudes than in the tropics. This was based on his...
, writing in the 1962 The Check-list of the Birds of the World, merged the Iago Sparrow and the mainland rufous sparrows as Passer motitensis. This taxonomy was followed frequently until J. Denis Summers-Smith
J. Denis Summers-Smith
James Denis Summers-Smith is a British ornithologist and mechanical engineer, a specialist both in sparrows and industrial tribology....
argued in the 1980s that the Iago Sparrow's many differences in morphology and behaviour, and separation from the other rufous sparrows by about 5000 kilometres (3,106.9 mi) are sufficient grounds for species status. Studies of mitochondrial
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
and nuclear DNA
Nuclear DNA
Nuclear DNA, nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid , is DNA contained within a nucleus of eukaryotic organisms. In mammals and vertebrates, nuclear DNA encodes more of the genome than the mitochondrial DNA and is composed of information inherited from two parents, one male, and one female, rather than...
further suggest it may be a close relative of the House Sparrow
House Sparrow
The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the House Sparrow occurs naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia...
and the Spanish Sparrow
Spanish Sparrow
The Spanish Sparrow or Willow Sparrow is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. It is found in the Mediterranean region and southwest and central Asia...
, rather than the rufous sparrows.
French ornithologist Émile Oustalet
Émile Oustalet
Jean-Frédéric Émile Oustalet was a French zoologist.Oustalet was born at Montbéliard, in the department of Doubs. He studied at the Ecole des Hautes-Etudes and his first scientific work was on the respiratory organs of dragonfly larvae...
described a specimen from Branco as a separate species Passer brancoensis in 1883, which was recognised as a subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
recognised by W. R. P. Bourne, who claimed to observe differences between birds 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
Charles Vaurie
Charles Vaurie was a French-born American ornithologist. He was born in France, but moved to Trenton, New Jersey as a youth...
, examining differences in plumage and measurements of specimens in major museums, did not find any significant variation, and Vaurie and Summers-Smith both did not recognise any subspecies.
Distribution and habitat
The Iago Sparrow is endemic to the Cape Verde IslandsCape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
. It is common on most islands, excluding Fogo
Fogo, Cape Verde
Fogo is an island in the Sotavento group of Cape Verde. It is the most prominent of the group, rising to nearly 3,000 m above sea level at Pico do Fogo.-Geography:...
(from which it is absent) and Santa Luzia
Santa Luzia, Cape Verde
Santa Luzia is an island of the Barlavento archipelago in Cape Verde located between São Nicolau and São Vicente. The area is 35 km² . The highest point is Monte Grande elevating 395 m...
, Branco and Sal
Sal, Cape Verde
Sal is an island in Cape Verde. It belongs to the northern group of islands, called Barlavento. The island is composed by a single administrative division, the Sal municipality. The island is home to Amílcar Cabral International Airport, the main airport of Cape Verde.- Geography :The island is...
(in which it is scarce). It can be found in a variety of habitats, including flat lava plains, cliffs, gorges, and edges of farmland, at altitudes of up to 1200 metres (3,937 ft). It has also been seen in urban areas and gardens on islands, where it occurs alongside the House Sparrow, but not the Spanish Sparrow. In agricultural areas the bird may do some damage to crops, mostly by eating buds and shoots. The Iago Sparrow is highly common in its limited range, though its exact population is not known. Though it may be at risk to unpredicted changes in its environment, due to its limited range, it is assessed as Least Concern
Least Concern
Least Concern is an IUCN category assigned to extant taxon or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, Near Threatened, or Conservation Dependent...
by the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
.
Behaviour
The Iago Sparrow is gregarious, usually breeding in small colonies, and forming large flocks outside the breeding season. It is not shy, allowing humans to approach it even at its nest. It is attracted to water, which is scarce in its habitat. It often is seen dust bathing in small groups.The adult sparrow feeds mainly on seeds, but also on insects and shoots. Nestlings, by contrast, feeds almost exclusively on insects. It forages mostly on the ground, moving restlessly and close to the ground. It flocks with other birds, even warblers such as the Blackcap
Blackcap
The Blackcap is a common and widespread sylviid warbler which breeds throughout temperate Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and winters from northwestern Europe south to tropical Africa...
and the Cape Verde Swamp-warbler.
This sparrow's breeding habits are not well known, though they are believed to be similar to those of the House Sparrow. Its breeding season
Breeding season
The breeding season is the most suitable season, usually with favourable conditions and abundant food and water, for breeding among some wild animals and birds . Species with a breeding season have naturally evolved to have sexual intercourse during a certain time of year in order to achieve the...
begins in August and September with the onset of the humid season. The Iago Sparrow builds its nest in a variety of habitats, including lava plain
Lava plain
A lava plain, also called a lava field or lava bed, is a large expanse of nearly flat-lying lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly-fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or even hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain...
s, cliffs, and gardens. The nest is made of grass, lined with hair and feathers and usually built in a hole in a cliff or wall. The average clutch is three to five eggs.
External links
- Media related to the Iago Sparrow at the Internet Bird Collection