Desert Sparrow

When to see the Desert Sparrow

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 8 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Desert Sparrow

The map shades 8 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Mali.

About the Desert Sparrow

The desert sparrow is a species of bird in the sparrow family Passeridae, found in the Sahara Desert of northern Africa. A similar bird, Zarudny's sparrow, is found in Central Asia and was historically recognised as a subspecies of the desert sparrow, but varies in a number of ways and is now recognised as a separate species by BirdLife International, the IOC World Bird List, and the Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Shelley's SparrowPasser shelleyiShelley's sparrow, also known as Shelley's rufous sparrow or the White Nile rufous sparrow, is a sparrow found in eastern Africa from South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and north-western Somalia to northern Uganda and north-western Kenya. Saxaul SparrowPasser ammodendriThe saxaul sparrow is one of the larger sparrows at 14–16 centimetres (5.5–6.3 in) and 25–32 grams (0.88–1.13 oz). Iago SparrowPasser iagoensisThe Iago sparrow is a small sparrow, 12.5–13 centimetres (4.9–5.1 in) long, with a wing length of 5.5–6.9 centimetres (2.2–2.7 in).