Talk:Sparrow (usability testing 2)

"Lists of Miscellaneous Information Should Be Avoided"
I came to this page hoping to find out more about the cultural associations of sparrows and was happy to find the section on literary references. Please don't get rid of this section just because of a blanket dislike of lists. —KillerDeathRobot (talk) 06:06, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

White-crown
This article may be useful in future just to back up someones edit to the mail article. I hestate to put it in the main article as i am not sure of this statement. "Professor Gary Rose, of the University of Utah, US, found that white crown sparrows learned a complete song, in the correct order, despite only ever hearing overlapping segments of it." Remind me of another story about a dog that turned out to be very problematic
 * That article is about a New World sparrow. This article is about Old World sparrows. --Evice 23:05, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Literature
Moved the Sparrows in Literature section back here from House Sparrow, since it concerns sparrows generically, and this is where you would naturally think to find it. Oliverkroll 21:28, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Lifespan?
What is the average lifespan of a Sparrow? Banjodog (talk) 22:14, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Online art store link
The link that has been repeatedly added to this article, while possibly well intentioned, is link spam. It should not be included under WP:EL. If you think I am wrong, please make your case here. Be prepared to state what the link adds to the article that would not be redundant if Sparrow were brought up to featured article standards. --Selket Talk 08:42, 28 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The link has only been added twice, as far as I can see, and only to this article. If it becomes persistent, then I think the assumption of good faith looks a little shaky, and I'll take steps to prevent it. jimfbleak 08:51, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Red sparrow territory
Right now, the article says that red sparrows only live in North America. Is that true? I thought that there were red sparrow colonies in Central America too. What's the source for the claim about North American red sparrows? Quiddity (talk) 22:13, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

DRtester1 pw:1234

Source: "The Big Book of Where Sparrows Are" by Simone Feathers p. 34 "Red Sparrows have been seen as far South as Brazil."

Sparrows as food
I'm not sure which species it is that is consumed, but I'm assuming it's House Sparrow since they are fairly commonplace. This occurs in China and Japan, but I don't want to put anything in the articles without knowing for sure which species it is. Robin Chen 04:49, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Most common?
Article should answer the question: Is this the most common bird worldwide? Tempshill 17:06, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The most common wild bird is Red-billed Quelea, most common including non-wild is chicken, 05:37, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
 * That depends upon the definition of "most common". I wouldn't treat a bird that is common to only one part of one continent as the "most common" in the world.  I would consider "most common" to be a function of both range and population -- something like "most commonly seen in most parts of the world" The Red-billed Quelea may be the most abundant bird species, but is it actually more abundant than the total population of all the species of Old World sparrow? Dfoxvog (talk) 14:49, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Chirping Sparrow?
Does anyone know the Latin name for the Chirping Sparrow? (80.216.88.241 (talk) 18:46, 5 July 2008 (UTC))


 * I think you mean Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina, an American sparrow jimfbleak (talk) 05:13, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Sparrow migration habits
Can someone add more information about sparrow migration patterns? There is no information on this at all on the page. Dchen (WMF) (talk) 22:13, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Source for putting Plocepasser and others in Passeridae
I'd like to update the sparrow article properly, so I'd like to know your source for putting Plocepasser in Passeridae. The one you gave in a hidden note is about the lice of Malagasy warblers, and does not discuss sparrows or weavers. &mdash;innotata 14:34, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The following place the genera in question in the Passeridae: IOC, IUCN, Zoonomen, and ITIS.  I see Clements has it in Ploceidae.  I went with consensus, since we don't have a single standard.....Pvmoutside (talk) 17:31, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The ITIS is using a rather old taxonomy (it isn't updated much, and I remember being strange in some areas), and I think the IUCN is the same; Zoonomen just displays the taxonomies of the "Peters Checklist, H&M 3rd ed., and CBBM" and the IOC is very fast to adopt proposed changes. The HBW (2009) places the genera in Ploceidae, and discusses the taxonomic issues. That doesn't make a "consensus" of sources, I think, so I'm not sure we should adopt this in taxoboxes. At any rate the article should discuss the genera in question in general, which is what I'll add if it's not clearer. &mdash;innotata 20:47, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Source for "Only the brown sparrows eat seeds"
@DannyH (WMF), in your latest edit, you mentioned that only brown sparrows eat seeds. Where did that information come from?

What sparrows species eat seeds?
I believe that the Junco Sparrow also eats seeds. Your article comment says only the one sparrow eats seeds.

Not only Brown Sparrows
Professor Sam Klutz at UC Berkeley has noted in his book (.....) that polka-dotted sparrows also eat seeds.