Skip to content
Lumisia Animals
← Find animals
Birds

House sparrow

Amazing fact

House sparrows fly straight, flapping continuously without gliding.

University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
House sparrow in its habitat (illustration)

No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.

An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

House sparrows fly straight, flapping continuously without gliding.

Check your card before sharing

Preparing your card…

The card and link show only the animal and its discovery. Check them with a grown-up before you send them.

THE REAL WORLD

The real House sparrow

Scientific name
Passer domesticus
Japanese name
イエスズメ
Group
Birds
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Passeridae
Genus
Passer
Facts about the real animal.
01

Originally a bird of Eurasia and North Africa, it was brought by people to North America and elsewhere. It lives near people, on farms and in towns.

02

Males have white cheeks and a black bib on the throat and chest; females have neither.

03

It hops about on the ground looking for many kinds of seeds to eat, along with some insects.

How the House sparrow lives

They are active during the day. They defend a territory around their nest. They communicate with other house sparrows using calls and postures.

University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web

Basic data

Weight
average 28.5 g
Lifespan
up to 13 years in the wild
Active
By day (diurnal)
Diet
Various seeds and insects
Range
Eurasia and North Africa
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web

Where the House sparrow has been recorded

World map with dots where the House sparrow has been recorded
Each dot marks a place with observations or specimens shared on GBIF. Some records are of animals that strayed or were brought by people, so the dots are not always where the animal lives.

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

简体中文
家麻雀
繁體中文
家麻雀
한국어
집참새
Português (Brasil)
Pardal-doméstico
Bahasa Indonesia
Burung gereja
Tiếng Việt
Sẻ nhà
اردو
گوریا

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

Report a mistake