Sooty Fox Sparrow (Passerella unalaschcensis)
About the Sooty Fox Sparrow
The sooty fox sparrow (Passerella (iliaca) unalaschcensis) contains the darkest-colored taxa in the genus Passerella. It is currently classified as a "subspecies group" within the fox sparrow pending wider-spread acceptance of species status. It has long been suspected to be a separate evolutionary lineage due to morphological distinctness (Swarth 1920), and this is confirmed by analysis of mtDNA sequence and haplotype data (Zink 1994, Zink & Kessen 1999, Zink & Weckstein 2003). This group appears to be most closely related to the thick-billed and/or slate-colored fox sparrows (Zink 1996, Zink & Weckstein 2003).
A real field recording of the Sooty Fox Sparrow. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Canada, United States · xeno-canto lists 169 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Red Fox SparrowPasserella iliacarecording
- Slate-colored Fox SparrowPasserella schistaceaprofile
- Thick-billed Fox SparrowPasserella megarhyncharecording
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.