Yellow-throated Sparrow Gymnoris xanthocollis Scientific name definitions

12·5–14 cm; 14–20 g. Smallish drab sparrow with comparatively long and slender bill . Male nominate race is mainly olive grey-brown above and pale brown to whitish below , unstreaked; can have faint pale supercilium (often more marked in female); small, rather inconspicuous pale yellow spot on lower throat; chestnut patch on forewing, two prominent white wingbars; tail slightly notched at tip, dark grey with thin paler buffy edges; iris dark brown; bill horn-coloured, becoming black in breeding season; legs grey or grey-brown. Female is like male but duller, lacks yellow throat spot and chestnut forewing; bill yellowish-horn, paler at base. Juvenile resembles female. Race <em>transfuga</em> is paler, more sandy , than nominate.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Open country and low hills with trees, river bottoms with trees, and scrub-jungle, also cultivated areas with scattered trees or hedgerows, villages and inhabited areas with gardens. To 1500 m.

In NW & N of range, from Turkey E to Pakistan and N India, a summer visitor; in S a partial migrant, some moving to S of breeding range in winter. Also nomadic, making local movements apparently in response to rain. Vagrant in Malta, Israel and Sri Lanka.

Plant material, mainly seeds, including those of cultivated cereals, also small berries and nectar (forehead often discoloured golden by pollen); in breeding season also insects, mainly weevils (Curculionidae), caterpillars, grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and ants (Formicidae). Nestlings fed with insects. Forages in trees, but mostly on ground . Gregarious; in pairs and small groups, with larger flocks outside breeding season.

Chirping calls , similar to "chilp" or chirrup" of Passer domesticus but softer and more tuneful; song, given for long periods from favoured perch, a rhythmic "chilp chalp cholp", more melodious and faster than that of P. domesticus.

Apr–Jul in Afghanistan and mainly Feb–May in India; two broods. Solitary or in small groups. Nest built by female, ranges from being a small pad of hair, feathers and grass to being an untidy mass of dry grass, wool and hair, lined with feathers, that fills cavity in which placed, mainly in covered site, including crevice in tree or hole in wall or building, also in old nest of other species. Clutch 3–4 eggs, occasionally 5; incubation by female alone, chicks fed by both sexes; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods.

Not globally threatened. Common; locally abundant in Indian Subcontinent.