Have you heard about the Kalahari’s small five?

Everyone knows about the big five, but the small five that is being referred to are the five types of sparrows and all of them are found in the Kalahari Dessert. It comes to show how diverse the Kalahari is despite being a dessert. These sparrows can be observed at about any watering hole and often one can observe all five present at the same time. Any bird watcher will revel in this unilateral show of diversity.

The Great Sparrow / Grootmossie

Paser motitensis. This sparrow is the largest of all of them hence the name. It prefers dry thornbush veld such as the Kalahari, Namibia and Botswana. These sparrows are often not observed close to homesteads, but rather in the veld.

House Sparrow / Huismossie

Passer domesticus. This sparrow is very alike to the Great Sparrow. The main difference is the size as well as a grey head with a darker brown eye strip in males and no brown eye strip in females. These sparrows flourish in gardens in and around homesteads.

Cape Sparrow / Gewone Mossie

Passer melanurus. The males are distinguished by their colourful head and the females by the white eye strip across a grey head. Males and females have a brownish back with white patterns only on the wings. These sparrows mostly prefer grasslands.

Greyheaded Sparrow / Gryskopmossie

Passer griseus. The kasaiings brown cross, back and wings in combination with the unmarked grey head eliminates any confusion with other spesies of sparrows. These sparrows prefer mixed bush veld and have been observed to have black beaks in the summer and yellow in the winter.

Yellowthroated Sparrow / Geelvlekmossie

Petronia superciliaris. The most prominent characteristic would be the dark head with, cream coloured brow strip and yellow throat stain. It is distinguishable from the Corn bird by the absence of a white cross. These sparrows prefer bush veld, thorn veld and river thickets.

The small five may be small but wonderful to observe. When seeing all five species at the same time it reminds one of the diverse ecosystems that exist in the Kalahari. Even though these birds are from the same genes, they behave in very different ways and have little competition with each other except when its bath time!