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To the Beauty of Birds

The Chestnut Sparrow (Passer eminibey) is a species of passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. It is the smallest member of the sparrow family, at about 4.3 in long. The breeding male has deep chestnut plumage and the female and juvenile are duller in appearance. Like its closest relatives in the genus Passer, the Arabian golden sparrow and the Sudan golden sparrow, it is gregarious, and is found in arid areas. Ranging through the east of Africa from Darfur to Tanzania, it is found in dry savanna, papyrus swamps, and near human habitation. Adults and juveniles both feed mostly on grass seeds, and fly in flocks, often with other species of bird, to find food. It nests in trees, building its own domed nests, and also usurping the more elaborate nests of weavers.

This species was first described in 1880, by Gustav Hartlaub in the Journal für Ornithologie, as Sorella Emini Bey. Hartlaub gave it the specific name Emini Bey in honor of the explorer Emin Pasha, who collected the type specimen in modern South Sudan or Uganda near Lado, and it is occasionally given the eponymous common name Emin Bey's sparrow. Hartlaub's unusual spelling of its specific epithet as two words led some to spell the name emini or emini-bey.

Hartlaub considered the chestnut sparrow's coloration and morphology to be distinct enough to allocate it to its own monotypic genus, Sorella. Although several authors have followed Hartlaub's treatment, it is usually been placed in the genus Passer.

The chestnut sparrow is found in East Africa along a broad band of mostly lower country from Darfur through the Kordofan region, South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya to north-central Tanzania. Its range also extends northeast into the southwest and Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. These photos were taken at the Samburo Nature Reserve.

Chestnut sparrows are gregarious, and are only occasionally found away from flocks. They frequently associate with queleas and other weavers. Adults feed on grass seeds, and those near human habitations will also eat crumbs and other household scraps. Nestlings are fed mostly softer grass seeds, and small beetles are also recorded in their diet.

Chestnut Sparrow

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