Just for Interest

[Paul Lagasi]

It took me a while to ID, what I thought was a weird house sparrow. I looked through all the European books and finally came up with this bird a Hybrid House/Spanish Sparrow...I actually found it in my Collins European Guide Book.
Photographed in Lucerne, Switzerland while I was having breakfast....it had a bit of my egg and toast...:tinysmile_shy_t:

I keep all my Non-North American images in this format...sometimes I can't find a stamp and I create my own...my wife does ay I am obsessed with this.....:Whoa!:

[denise ippolito]

Great idea Paul! Thanks for sharing your find. BTW-Your wife might be right!:S3:

[Declan Troy]

Paul,

Hybrid House x Spanish sparrows are generally called Italian Sparrows and are an example of what appears to be speciation by hybridization. You can read all about it in the current issue of Molecular Ecology where this article is even free!

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05183.x/abstract

Or a popular news account is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14947902

Declan

[John Chardine]

Good call Declan. This is a nice looking "spuggy".