House sparrow
Amazing fact
House sparrows fly straight, flapping continuously without gliding.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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House sparrows fly straight, flapping continuously without gliding.
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
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.
Males have white cheeks and a black bib on the throat and chest; females have neither.
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 WebBasic 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
Where the House sparrow has been recorded

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
- 日本語
- イエスズメ
- 简体中文
- 家麻雀
- 繁體中文
- 家麻雀
- 한국어
- 집참새
- Español
- Gorrión común
- Français
- Moineau domestique
- Deutsch
- Haussperling
- Português (Brasil)
- Pardal-doméstico
- Italiano
- Passera europea
- हिन्दी
- घरेलू गौरैया
- العربية
- العُصفُور الدُّوري
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Burung gereja
- Tiếng Việt
- Sẻ nhà
- Русский
- Домовый воробей
- Türkçe
- Bayağı serçe
- ไทย
- นกกระจอกใหญ่
- বাংলা
- পাতি চড়ুই
- 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
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Passer domesticusChecked: 2026-11-04
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.
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