Arabian Golden Sparrow Passer euchlorus Scientific name definitions

12–13 cm; 12–17 g. Male is golden-yellow, except for paler yellow externallink with greyish inner webs, black flight-feathers with whitish edges, small white patch at base of primaries, black tail feathers broadly edged white; iris dark brown; bill pinkish  to creamy grey, becoming black  in breeding season; legs pale pinkish-brown. Female  is mainly pale buff or sandy grey, pale lemon-buff below; with wing and tail similar to male's. Juvenile is similar to female, but with faint spotting on upperparts.

SW tip of Arabian Peninsula (SW Saudi Arabia, W Yemen), and Djibouti and extreme coastal NW Somalia.

Arid thornbush savanna and nearby cultivated land.

Mainly sedentary; small local movements in non-breeding season.

Seeds of grasses and cultivated cereals, especially millet; little recorded. Highly gregarious, forages in small flocks; larger flocks, sometimes of thousands, in non-breeding season.

Soft, disyllabic, high-pitched chirp, similar to that of P. luteus. Flocks utter continuous soft twittering.

Breeding probably associated with rains, recorded in Mar–Jul in Yemen and Mar–May in Djibouti. Highly colonial, with 20–30 nests in one tree. Nest a compact oval structure, domed, with entrance on side, made from thin acacia (Acacia) twigs, lined with plant fibres and feathers, placed 2–3 m above ground in tree, typically acacia, with nest worked into the branches. Clutch 4–6 eggs; incubation by female, chicks fed by both sexes; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods.

Not globally threatened. Common. Largely dependent on cultivated crops; not directly controlled by man, but breeding area may be abandoned after a few years, the birds moving to a new location. Could possibly be put at risk through removal of trees on which it depends for cover and breeding. Presence in Africa is result of recent expansion of range, possibly resulting from escaped cagebirds; is still spreading W, the gap between it and P. luteus having decreased from 650 km in 1970 to less than 50 km in 2000.