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Ancestor: Passer domesticus (House Sparrow)

Descendants 2 Myh:

Green-footed Probing Marepa

Size: 22 cm
Weight: 70 grams

Dietary Needs: Varied invertebrate and vertebrate, terrestrial and aquatic animals hunted or scavenged by parents while developing, moves onto a more omnivorous diet before it's first winter as it transitions onto fruit and grain on top of it's usual animal protein diet. They eat a lot of invertebrates due to their small size there aren't many vertebrate species they can kill only scavenge the already dead. They are capable of killing small lizards, mice and sparrows but the risk of injury means they are usually desperate when they do this.

Life Cycle: During the start of the mating season grey areas on the male turn a lighter bluish grey and he defends a nest from other males in hopes of attracting a female.  If unsuccessful they don't help out with other couples like house sparrows used to. Especially those with ancestors who survived on very small islands, they endured periods of crowding leading to competition more than cooperation. Territories are defended more strictly, mating pairs don't accept help from hopeful bachelors they just drive them out.

A lack of predators against island subspecies has resulted in smaller egg clutches and more parental investment into offspring that can compete well against others of it's own species. The slightly longer year gives mating pairs time to try again if failure results early due to some other circumstance.

Other: Descended from a freak-occurrence population of sparrows stranded on one of the Circle Islands, this species has island-hopped all the way to Soloa, with increasing survival rates when transitioning over oceans as they moved Westwards towards Soloa. Thus, subspecies at the East of the Circle Islands tend to stick to their respective islands while those at the West have more genetic history of surviving transitions over sea, and are more likely to do so again in the future.