Great Sparrow
Passer motitensis (A. Smith, 1836)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Great Sparrow in Marakele National Park, South Africa
Derek Keats · CC BY 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The great sparrow (Passer motitensis), also known as the southern rufous sparrow, is found in southern Africa in dry, wooded savannah and towns.
This is a 15–16 cm long sparrow superficially like a large house sparrow. It has a grey crown and rear neck and rufous upperparts.
While in the past some authorities considered this species and several related species of 'rufous sparrow' on the African mainland to be the same as the Iago sparrow of Cape Verde, they do not appear to be so closely related as thought. A few currently recognise only some of the rufous sparrows as separate from the great sparrow, but the Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International recognise the Socotra sparrow, Kenya sparrow, Kordofan sparrow, and Shelley's sparrow as separate species.
Wikipedia contributors, Great sparrow; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:23:59.813404+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Passer motitensis (A. Smith, 1836)
- Name authority
- (A. Smith, 1836)
- Common name
- Great Sparrow
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Passeridae
- Genus
- Passer
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyPasseridae Rafinesque, 1815
- genusPasser Brisson, 1760
- speciesPasser motitensis (A. Smith, 1836)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Passer. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Saxaul SparrowPasser ammodendri Gould, 1872 | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Passer cordofanicus Heuglin, 1871 | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| House SparrowPasser domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Arabian Golden SparrowPasser euchlorus (Bonaparte, 1850) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Plain-backed SparrowPasser flaveolus Blyth, 1845 | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Parrot-billed SparrowPasser gongonensis (Oustalet, 1890) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Northern Grey-headed SparrowPasser griseus (Vieillot, 1817) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Socotra SparrowPasser insularis P. L. Sclater & Hartlaub, 1881 | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Passer italiae (Vieillot, 1817) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cape SparrowPasser melanurus (Statius Muller, 1776) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Dead Sea SparrowPasser moabiticus Tristram, 1864 | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Eurasian SparrowPasser montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) | PasseridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=561886 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4DXY5. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.