Zapata sparrow

The Zapata sparrow, Torreornis inexpectata, is a medium-sized grey and yellow bird of Cuba. It measures about 16.5 centimetres in length and is grey and yellow overall, with a dark reddish-brown crown and olive-grey upperparts. It was found in March 1927 by the Spanish zoologist Fermin Zanon Cervera near Santo Tomas in the Zapata Swamp, and was formally described the same year by Thomas Barbour and James Lee Peters. The species is endemic to Cuba. Besides the Zapata grasslands it has since been found on Cayo Coco and in a coastal region of Guantanamo Province, and because it is no longer confined to Zapata the name Cuban sparrow is sometimes suggested. Each population is assigned to a different race, from sawgrass savannahs at Zapata to forest and shrubbery on Cayo Coco and arid thorn-scrub and cactus country in the east. In the dry season it feeds mainly on seeds and flowers, with insects, spiders, snails and their eggs, and in the wet season it may take small lizards. Wildfires, wetland drainage and habitat loss to agriculture and tourism are the typical threats.