House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

I found this common little songbird gamboling amidst the wire fences and thickets on Dorchester Street in Hyde Park. He is the House Sparrow, or passer domesticus. A descendant of 19th century European immigrants (like so many of his fellow Chicagoans), the House Sparrow is a true sparrow in the European sense of the word (not like those buntings we Americans ludicrously aggrandize as sparrows). Nay, the passer domesticus is the French champagne to the spizella aborea's California sparkling wine.

Aggressive, scrappy, and unpretentious with his single-note chirping song that sounds like a DJ scratching a record, this street-wise avis has been much more successful in the USA than his odd unassimilated relative, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (passer montanus). His cousin refuses to learn English or watch the NFL. I hope to spot passer montanus sometime soon as he is seen in North America exclusively in a small range around St. Louis and Western Illinois.