Italian sparrow

It is a passerine bird fairly common in the city up until a few years ago, where it finds its ideal habitat.

• Length: 14-16 cm.
• Wingspan: 24-26 cm.
• Plumage: it is different in males and females: the male’s upper part and wings are brown, streaked with black, crown and head are brown-hazelnut, black throat and grey under part; the female instead has less flashy colours, with a pale brown upper part streaked with black, beige crown, and underpart and throat grey. Its conical and robust bill is dark grey.
• Weight: approx. 30 g.

It is an omnivore and feeds on seeds, fruit, insects and man’s left-over food.

The reproduction season begins in March and there may be several successive clutches. They build their nests with dried blades of grass in various types of recesses (under roof tiles, in holes in walls, posts, etc. and, more rarely, in tree cavities). It lays 3-6 eggs that it broods for 11-14 days. The chicks remain in the nest for about two weeks from hatching, but they are cared for by their parents or other members of the same colony also afterwards, until they reach autonomy and abandon the original group to create a new group.

In Italy is it nest-building and for the most part sedentary. It can be found in various environments, from urban areas and village up to the open countryside. It was very common until a few years ago. In recent decades, it has sustained a significant decline for reasons still today not entirely ascertained (reduction of sites suitable for nest-building due to building restorations, a decrease in prey species to feed the chicks, less availability of food caused by changes in farming practices).