Editing Spanish sparrow (section)

=== Subspecies ''hispaniolensis'' ===
[[File:Passer hispaniolensis male on wire.jpg|thumb|upright|A male in Sardinia]]
The western subspecies ''hispaniolensis'' breeds in parts of [[Iberia]] and [[North Africa]], some islands, and the Balkans. In Iberia it is uncommon, occurring in the [[Tagus]] valley and sporadically in the northern [[Meseta Central|meseta]], the eastern coast, and in the [[Guadalquivir]] and [[Guadiana]] valleys.<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Roman, J. |author2=Onrubia, A. |author3=Roviralta, F. |author4=Balmori, A. |author5=Fernandez, J. |author6=Sanz-Zuasti, J. |author7=Gutierrez, C. |author8=Jubete, F. |author9=Roman, F. |author10=Garcia, J. |author11=Olea, P. P. |title=Sobre el status del gorrion moruno, ''Passer hispaniolensis'' (Temminck, 1820), en la submeseta norte |journal=Ecología |volume=11 |year=1997 |pages=453–456 |url=http://www.mma.es/secciones/el_ministerio/organismos/oapn/pdf/ecologia_11_25.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420103351/http://www.mma.es/secciones/el_ministerio/organismos/oapn/pdf/ecologia_11_25.pdf |location=Madrid |language=es |access-date=2010-11-12 |url-status=live }}</ref> While the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow form a "hybrid swarm" in the eastern half of the [[Maghreb]], they coexist with little hybridisation in the western half.<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/><ref>{{cite journal|title=La distribution des Moineaux, ''Passer'', en Algérie : observations complémentaires|journal=Le Gerfaut|year=1986|author=Metzmacher, M.|volume=76|pages=131–138|language=fr, en, nl|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926224947/http://users.belgacom.net/fayenbois/passer/ph_distribution.pdf|archive-date=2011-09-26|url=http://users.belgacom.net/fayenbois/passer/ph_distribution.pdf|access-date=2011-07-25|url-status=live}}</ref> In northern Italy and Corsica, the Spanish sparrow is replaced by the Italian sparrow and the two [[Intergradation|intergrade]] in southern Italy, as well as [[Malta]], [[Crete]] and nearby islands such as [[Rhodes]].<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/> The Spanish sparrow is not known to breed in the [[Balearic Islands]], the [[Aegean Islands]], [[Corfu]] or the [[Peloponnese]], but it occurs on Sardinia, [[Pantelleria]] and smaller islands near the coast. In the Balkans, it occurs patchily from [[Montenegro]] across into the Danube Valley of Romania and northern Serbia. It is found in mainland [[Greece]] and [[Bulgaria]], where it is also uncommon.<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Sladen|first=Alexander B.|year=1918|title=Further Notes on the Birds of Macedonia|journal=The Ibis|series=10|volume=6|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16282106}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Chasen|first=F. N.|year=1921|title=Field Notes on the Birds of Macedonia. With special reference to the Struma Plain|journal=The Ibis|series=11|volume=3|issue=2|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8759902}}</ref>

The Spanish sparrow is likely to have been established on the western Canary Islands for some time, as it was found on [[Lanzarote]] when a naturalist first visited the island in 1828. In the 1830s, it was recorded on [[Fuerteventura]], [[Gran Canaria]] and [[Tenerife]] and since the 1940s it has reached all the other islands.<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/><ref name="colonists"/> It reached Madeira in May 1935, when numbers of sparrows were found across the island after nine days of strong, continuous easterly winds.<ref name=bwp/><ref name="colonists"/> It seems to have reached Cape Verde around the same time it reached the Canaries and it was first recorded there on [[Santiago, Cape Verde|Santiago]] by [[Charles Darwin]] in 1832. From then onwards it reached all the other larger islands, in a poorly recorded extension of its range.<ref name="SummersHispaniolensis"/><ref name="colonists"/><ref>{{harvnb|Gould|1838|p=95}}</ref>