Сақсауыл шабартығы

Species of bird

The saxaul sparrow (Passer ammodendri) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in parts of Central Asia. At and , it is among the larger sparrows. Both sexes have plumage ranging from dull grey to sandy brown, and pale brown legs. Females have less boldly coloured plumage and bills, lacking the pattern of black stripes on the male's head. The head markings of both sexes make the saxaul sparrow distinctive, and unlikely to be confused with any other bird. Vocalisations include a comparatively soft and musical chirping call, a song, and a flight call. Three subspecies are recognised, differing in the overall tone of their plumage and in the head striping of the female. The subspecies ammodendri occurs in the west of the saxaul sparrow's range, while stoliczkae and nigricans occur in the east. This distribution falls into six probably disjunct areas across Central Asia, from central Turkmenistan to northern Gansu in China. A bird of deserts, the saxaul sparrow favours areas with shrubs such as the saxaul, near rivers and oases. Though it has lost parts of its range to habitat destruction caused by agriculture, it is not seriously threatened by human activities. Little is known of the saxaul sparrow's behaviour. Often hidden in foliage, it forages in trees and on the ground. It feeds mostly on seeds, as well as insects while breeding and as a nestling. When not breeding it forms wandering flocks, but it is less social than other sparrows while breeding, often nesting in isolated pairs. Nests are round bundles of dry plant material lined with soft materials such as feathers. They are built in holes in tree cavities, earth banks, rocky slopes, and within man made structures or the nests of birds of prey. Two clutches of five or six eggs are typically laid in a season. Both parents construct the nest and care for their eggs and young.

The saxaul sparrow is one of the larger sparrows at and Like all other sparrows, it flies swiftly and often at height. Distinctive markings, especially on its head, make the saxaul sparrow unlikely to be confused with any other bird. Severtzov had been planning to describe the species as Passer ammodendri for several years and had been distributing specimens among other naturalists. When natural history dealer Charles Dode escaped from the Paris Commune in 1871 with some of his collection, Gould obtained specimens from a set of rare birds Dode exhibited to the Zoological Society of London. Severtzov did not describe the species until 1873, and some later writers preferred to attribute him, but Gould's description takes priority over Severtzov's. The saxaul sparrow's species name refers to its desert habitat, coming from the name of the Ammodendron or sand acacia tree, which is in turn derived from the Ancient Greek άμμος (ammos, "sand") and δένδρον (dendron, "tree"). The English name saxaul sparrow refers to the saxaul plant, with which it is closely associated. The saxaul sparrow usually is classified in the genus Passer with the house sparrow and around twenty other species, although a genus Ammopasser was created for the saxaul sparrow by Nikolai Zarudny in 1890. The saxaul sparrow's relations within the genus Passer are unclear, although with its black throat feathering it has usually been considered part of the "Palaearctic black bibbed sparrow" group related to the house sparrow. J. Denis Summers Smith considered that the Palaearctic Passer sparrows evolved about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. During this time, sparrows would have been isolated in ice free refugia, such as a certain steppe region in Central Asia, where Summers Smith suggested the saxaul sparrow evolved. Genetic and fossil evidence suggest a much earlier origin for the Passer species, perhaps in the Miocene and Pliocene, as suggested by Luis Allende and colleagues in their 2001 phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA. This analysis also suggested that the saxaul sparrow may be an early offshoot or basal species in its genus, a relative of certain African sparrows such as the northern grey headed sparrow. If the saxaul sparrow is related to these species, either the saxaul sparrow formerly occurred in the deserts of Africa and Arabia, or each of the groups of Passer sparrows are of African origin. Across its Central Asian distribution, the saxaul sparrow occurs in six probably disjunct areas, and is divided into at least three subspecies. ammodendri birds breed sporadically in parts of central Turkmenistan, Iran, and possibly Afghanistan, migrating to the south during the winter. The subspecies stoliczkae was named after Ferdinand Stoliczka in 1874 by Allan Octavian Hume, from specimens Stoliczka collected in Yarkand. This subspecies is separated from the other two subspecies by the Tian Shan mountains. It is found across a broad swath of China from Kashgar east to the far west of Inner Mongolia, through the areas around the Taklamakan Desert (but probably not in the inhospitable desert itself), and through the east of Xinjiang, northern Gansu, and the fringes of southern Mongolia. In the extreme west of the Gobi Desert a disjunct population separated from the other stoliczkae birds by the Gurvan Saikhan Uul mountains occurs, which is sometimes separated as a subspecies timidus. The subspecies nigricans, described by ornithologist L. S. Stepanyan in 1961, is found in northern Xinjiang's Manasi River valley.

The saxaul sparrow is found in remote parts of Central Asia, where its distribution is believed to fall into six disjunct areas, although this is uncertain due to the scarcity of records. It is found in deserts, especially around rivers and oases. It is usually found around shrubs such as saxaul (Haloxylon), poplar (Populus), or tamarisk (Tamarix). Sometimes it occurs around settlements and grain fields, especially during the winter.

Little is known of the saxaul sparrow's behaviour, because of its remote range. It is shy in many areas, and spends much time hidden in foliage, but breeding birds in Mongolia were reported to be "quite confiding". When not breeding, it is social, and can form flocks of up to fifty birds, sometimes associating with Eurasian tree, Spanish, and house sparrows. In some regions, it makes small local migrations. Towards the spring, saxaul sparrows form pairs within their flock, before dispersing in April. Nests are often built in tree cavities, where they are sometimes placed close together. Nests in man made structures are increasingly common, as large trees in the saxaul sparrow's habitat are removed. In some clutches, one egg is noticeably paler than the others. Four eggs collected by Zarudny from Transcaspia had an average size of Young that have left their nest remain nearby until well after their moult, before departing for winter flocks, followed later by the adults.