Fan-Tailed Sparrow

One of the most common birds on the island, the Fan-Tailed Sparrow, a small, palm sized bird.

Description

Small and often described as the 'bird in the hand', the Fan-Tailed Sparrow is about four inches in length with an extra inch of tail. Its plumage is mainly warm rufous above and grey below, a bar of white on the side of its wing. It gets its name from its most distinctive feature, it often holding its tail in a flicking fan shape rather than closed as it moves; the tip of it's tail feathers is black, a swath of ruddy red taking up the majority of the feather before a patch of white that it flashes as it moves about.

Habitat, Behavior and Diet

The Fan-Tailed Sparrow nests mainly in low underbrush and medium height bushes, but ranges across the island in it's quest for food. Comfortable in everything from open grassland to dense forest to even along the sheltered beaches, the birds have readily adapted to the building of Yuriba Village, eagerly moving into the village as prime habitat. Though they flock easily with each other, they are much less likely to flock with other bird species, though in the winter they will generally ignore and allow others to move about and forage with them.

Flocking in large groups, the Fan-Tail is most active in the daytime, chirping, fluttering flocks scattering about the village and forests in search for food. Often visiting yards and houses around the village, they spend most of the day hopping along the ground hunting for seed, fruit and even small insects, the birds are a valuable resource for the native berry bushes to spread.

The easiest spot in the village to observe the Fan-Tail is most likely Yuriba Park, the birds finding it to be prime habitat, nesting in the hedges which border the park and taking advantage of the groomed landscape to forage for food.