Tree Sparrow

The bird is often confused with the larger House Sparrow, but its rich brown, almost coppery head, a black patch on its white cheeks, and a double white wing bar, together its slighter and more graceful build, are distinctive. The sexes are practically alike, an important specific character.

The crown and nape are rich chestnut, and on the white cheeks and ear-coverts there is a triangular black patch; the chin and throat are black. Two distinct though narrow white bars cross the brown wings. In summer the bill is lead-blue, in winter almost black. The legs are pale brown and the irides hazel.

Young, even in the nest, closely resemble their parents; they are said to be duller, but except that the white is suffused with buff, this is misleading. The black on face and bib is pure, but greyer on the lores ; the breast and belly are browner.

It is rural in Europe, but replaces its relative as a town bird in parts of Asia. In Australia, it is found in some rural and semi-rural districts, but not cities.

Its voice is more shrill; the call is a shorter "chip," than the House Sparrow's and the song, modulated chirps, is musical.

Though occasionally nesting in isolated trees, it is a gregarious bird at all seasons, and a grove of old trees with a plentiful supply of hollows, or a disused quarry, are favourite sites for the colony ; what it likes is a hole in which to put its untidy nest, composed of hay, grass, wool or other material and lined with feathers.

Some of the nests are not actually in holes in rock, but are built amongst roots of overhanging furze or other bushes. The haunts of man are not always shunned, for old thatch in a barn or cottage will shelter a colony. A domed nest, like that of the House Sparrow, is sometimes built in the old nest of a Magpie or other bird.

The four to six eggs, usually five, are smaller and, as a rule, browner than those of the House Sparrow . They vary considerably, and frequently the markings are massed at one end. In most clutches one egg is lighter and differs in markings from the others.