Sudan Golden Sparrow

Brown back gold sparrows, Sudan

The Brown - back gold sparrow (Passer luteus ) is a species of bird in the family of sparrows. He is one of the few passerine species that are relatively commonly kept as ornamental birds in Europe.

The Brown - back gold sparrow is classified by the IUCN as uncritical ( least concern ).

Description

The Brown - back gold sparrow reaches a body length of 12-13 centimeters. The male has a golden yellow plumage with chestnut- brown back and tail. During the breeding season the beak is black, otherwise it is flesh colored, as well as the feet and legs. The female of the Brown - back gold sparrow is a sandy brown color, the body bottom is slightly lighter than the body top. His sounds are reminiscent of those of the house sparrow.

The males of the brown back gold sparrow are distinctive in their breeding plumage. Yemen Gold Sparrow, with the back of the brown - gold sparrow forms a superspecies has a darker plumage and has no brown. The female has similarities with the females of the house sparrow and the sparrow Maron, but their plumage is yellowish. Of the females of the Yemen - gold sparrow, it differs in the sand brown body top and the longitudinal stripes on the jacket.

Dissemination

The distribution area of the brown back gold sparrow ranges from Mali in West Africa to the East African Ethiopia and Sudan and is between 12 ° and 20 ° N. Brown back gold sparrows live mainly nomadic and breed opportunistically when they enter the habitat conditions the opportunity. In Senegal and Mauritania the distribution area extends no further south than to the 500 -mm isohyet, in the north, the distribution limit is at about the 250 -mm isohyet. In high rainfall years, Brown - back gold sparrows also nest in areas that normally have only 100 mm of precipitation per year. Since the 1960s, the probably increasing irrigation have led to the back - Brown Gold Sparrow was able to expand its breeding range.

Habitat

The habitats of the brown back gold sparrow are arid, sandy savannas, which are passed loosely with thorn bushes and trees, as well as dry forest regions. He is not pronounced synanthropic, but tested for grain fields and gardens in the village occasionally for food. Brown back gold sparrows breed preferred in such regions that have either permanent water bodies or where they provide irrigation water access. In Senegal and Mauritania Brown back gold sparrow and in regions in front with an average annual temperature of 29 to 30 degrees. In Eritrea, it is often found in sparsely covered with acacia savannas at altitudes below 1200 meters. He also settled the coastal plain here. In Sudan, it breeds in the coastal region of the Red Sea and avoids mountainous regions. The Brown - back gold Sperling has also human settlements developed as a habitat and occurs in fields as well as in towns.

Way of life

Outside the breeding season of the backs Brown Gold Sparrow is a very gregarious Art He is almost always observed in loose gangs of 10 to 100 individuals. Occasionally, however, such teams may also include up to 10,000 individuals. Often the brown back gold sparrow with the red-billed weaver, weaver birds of the genera Bubalornis or Ploceus, the willow sparrow which Bandamadine, the African silver beak or other finches is associated. Generally, he is a shy bird that flies up quickly when people approach him. For comfort behavior include both extensive dust baths and bathing in water.

At the beginning of the dry season, when food is still sufficient and widely available, can be found only getting a few birds at individual picnic areas, a whose location is constantly shifting. Towards the end of the dry season, large communal picnic areas form near water holes and feeding grounds. On one such stopping place in Senegal is 400,000 Brown back gold sparrows held over an area of ​​20 acres on distributed. In Niger, more than one million individuals of this Sperlingsart gathered during the night on an area of 800 hectares. When resting places densely grown thorn bushes and trees and sugarcane fields are usually chosen. Some resting places to be visited again and again outside the breeding season over a period of five months. The Roost leave Brown back gold sparrows with the beginning of the dawn. Only in rainy weather and during the breeding season they are active throughout the day. Outside the breeding season they rest during the hottest time of the day in trees and bushes not far from their feeding grounds. If against 16 clock the temperature, they are looking at the water points to bathe and drink. In their nightly resting places they drop a 60 to 90 minutes before sunset.

Foraging and food

Brown back gold sparrows search for food mainly on the ground, they keep preferably in the vicinity of trees and shrubs on which they visit again between the different phases of activity to rest. During the breeding season they are looking mainly for food individually and then do not depart too far from the nest tree. Squads of eating brown back gold sparrows are generally oriented in a direction that rear birds fly over regularly defined front in order to put on the tip of the squads. Seed is both picked from the ears as gleaned from the ground.

The diet consists mainly of grass seeds such as those of Rispenhirsen and agricultural farming products such as pearl millet, rice and sorghum millet. The birds also eat fruits, tomatoes, flowers, insects, spiders and snails. The nestlings are fed with large insects and their larvae.

Reproduction

Brown back gold sparrows nest almost exclusively in breeding colonies, which can be very large. In Senegal, were per square kilometer, 1,000 to 20,000, 10,000 counted in Mali and Niger 12000-57000 nests per square kilometer. In a single tree up to 15 nests may be located. So only the immediate nest area is defended by the breeding pairs. The Brown - back gold sparrow is monogamous, it is so far but not sure if the couple relationship for longer than a brooding period.

Brown back gold sparrows are opportunistic breeders. You start breeding when covered by rainfall, soil with young vegetation and insects are sufficient for the nutrition of the young birds, and water bodies. Within the colony, the breeding business is not synchronized; the breeding colony can be up to two months with breeding pairs exist in different stages of the breeding business. The nest is a ball nest with side entrance. It is not particularly carefully built, the outside is not edited nesting material usually hangs loose. Brown back gold sparrows obstruct inter alia grass, bark, leaves, flowers and feathers. The nest is usually located in a branch fork 1.8 to 5.0 meters or above the ground. The nest is initiated by the male, which picks up twigs either from the ground or which steals from neighboring nests.

The nest consists of three to four whitish eggs. It is only eleven days incubated by the female. The male parent bird, however, is involved in feeding the nestlings. The fledging period is 15 days.

System

Maron Sperling, Yemen - gold sparrow and brown - back gold sparrow were long considered primitive species within the genus Passer with only a relatively small degree of relationship to the house sparrow and the other, represented in the Palaearctic schwarzkehligen sparrow species. They have therefore been made ​​occasionally in the genus Auripasser. Studies of mitochondrial DNA point out, however, that both the Maron Sperling and Yemen and brown back gold sparrow either derived from these schwarzkehligen sparrow species or closely related to them.