Petronia petronia (Linneo 1766)

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Petronia petronia (Linneo 1766)

Similar in size to the house sparrow, from which it immediately differs due to the different colouration
of the mantle and for a spot of a beautiful citrine yellow on the top
chest more or less developed and in any case of greater amplitude in the males, however not evident if not from very close up, the Passero !agio is a bird of passage, autumnal, often herded with the P.d. domesticus in northern Italy, where it is perhaps nesting in small numbers in the mountains of Veneto and in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, and is present as stationary and nesting, with wandering southwards in the bad season, throughout central and southern Italy, in Sicily , in Sardinia, in Corsica, in Malta and in the Egadi and Aeolian islands. For the Tuscan archipelago it would seem like a step. Not equally distributed, in some areas the presence is conspicuous, in others totally absent (Brichetti, 1976). In Sardinia, Arrigoni degli Oddi (on n. 6 of «Avicula» of 1902) believed he identified the subspecies Petronia petronia helhnayri characterized (I quote the essential part verbatim) by the «... absolute lack of the tawny tint on the upper parts, which is replaced by a slightly accentuated olive-brown color,
for the back and for the streaks on the head of a blacker tone, and for the slightly smaller dimensions». Accepted by Hartert in 1904, rejected by Giglioli (1907 ), not reported by Baliani (1910 ) who was also an attentive and scrupulous preparer for the Museum of Genoa, recognized by Moltoni (1945), denied by Vaurie (1959), not reported by Cova (1969), quoted by Toschi (1969) with a note «.., however this form is not recognized as valid by some Authors. which place it in synonymy of the previous one», where by previous we mean the typical form P. p. petronia with clear reference to Vaurie, not admitted by Frugís (1972) nor by Brichetti (1976), this form appears very dubious.
Brichetti (1976) affirms the abundance of individual variations of coloring and tonality
(see also Giglioli, 1907) and I too have had several occasions to notice dilutions of
coloration, especially in live birds brought for sale at festivals and fairs. I am, however, inclined to believe that the generally washed-out tones I observed under these circumstances were
the product of certain food shortages, given that they were not subjects of fresh capture but
of specimens kept in captivity and fed with granular feed probably not del
all suitable. In the literature I find no trace of chromatic aberrations of the plumage due
to albinism, melanism or isabellism.
For one hundred years now, the species seems to be contracting its range towards the south. Once
very widespread also in central Europe where it constituted the remnant of a fauna of an era
warmer, it has now almost completely disappeared from Germany, where it formerly nested
in southern Baden, Franconia
and in Thuringia (Grzimek 1.974).
Forastic, not anthropized and rarely found except in exceptional cases in our cities
(Sevesi, 1937, who reports that the only individual ascertained in that study in Milan was
a wounded subject), the scientific name (Petronia from petra = rock) is very well suited to this
bird and immediately frames the environment in which it lives.
It nests in mountainous areas (arid clearings, stony and bushy places, mountain rocks)
up to an altitude of about 1500 m. building a similar globular nest
to that of the Alpine Chaffinch in holes in trees, in crevices of rocks or old walls and sometimes even on the ground.
It seems that the female alone provides for the incubation of the eggs (from 4 to 6, exceptionally 7
per brood) for a period of about 14 days. One or two broods a year, from April to June,
in some cases it seems even in July. After a stay in the nest of about 20 days, where
they are nourished by the two parents with insects and a small part of seeds, the young are ready
when taking off, similar to the females but without the yellow gular spot and with the lower streaks
more marked. At the time of the pass, while many arrive from beyond the Alps, those who have nested
on our mountains they tend to move towards the plain.
Gregarious, it is generally wilder than the House Sparrow with which, however, it is not rare
meet it in large groups traveling through the countryside where it is sometimes found in the same areas
of buntings. Unlike the other Sparrows on the ground, it doesn't move by hopping but a
little steps.
It appears to be a declining species, although in local expansion in some areas (Orlando,
1936), not having the prolificacy nor the adaptability of the house sparrow or of the
early morning, from which perhaps it suffers the pressure.
As far as I know, captive breeding has never been practiced that anyway, date
the restlessness of the species, I think would hardly have positive results.
In any case, the captured subjects survive well, especially if the feeding is administered
it has a high protein content and is supplemented by live prey.