What is the difference between the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow?

Sparrows are the collective name for 27 species of small birds in the genus Passer of the family Passeridae. There are 27 species worldwide, 5 of which are distributed within China. Their distribution is quite wide. Except for the extremely cold North and South Poles and high-mountain deserts, they are found all over the world. So where is the difference between the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow?

1. The difference between the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow

The male house sparrow has a grey forehead, crown and nape, with the nape sometimes mixed with chestnut; the female has no black patch on the head or throat, no grey on the head either, and has blue streaks on the upperparts. The male Eurasian tree sparrow, by contrast, is pure liver-brown from the forehead to the nape; the upperparts are sandy brown with black streaks; the female resembles the male but is paler or duller in colour, with dark tips to the feathers of the forehead and cheeks, and a yellowish base to the bill.

2. Habitat of the house sparrow

The house sparrow mainly inhabits human living environments, whether mountains, plains, hills, grasslands, marshes and farmland, or towns and villages, it is mostly found wherever humans gather. Its habitat altitude ranges from 300-2500 m, and in the Tibet region it can even reach 4300 m. It moves about and forages in farmland, river valleys, orchards, rocky grassy slopes near villages and settlements, around houses, and in trees along roadsides. In winter it often migrates to low-altitude areas such as the foot of mountains and plains, showing a phenomenon of seasonal vertical migration.

3. Living habits of the house sparrow

Migration: resident bird, some have seasonal vertical migration or wandering.

It likes to flock, and except during the breeding period when it moves alone or in pairs, in other seasons it is mostly in small groups. It is an omnivorous bird, feeding mainly on plant food and insects. The animal food it eats is mainly insects, among which the more common ones include golden flower beetles, scarab beetles, click beetles, stink bugs, dragonfly larvae, lepidopteran larvae, weevils, ladybirds, ants, cicadas, mosquitoes, copper-green scarab beetles and other insects and insect larvae of the orders Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Odonata, etc. The plant food mainly includes wheat, rice, buckwheat, wheat, corn, and the fruits and seeds of wild plants such as grasses and sedges.