NZ has sparrows. Doesn’t everyone?

“House sparrow” is the common name of Passer domesticus, which occurs almost everywhere people occur. In New Zealand, they’re found everywhere except high up in the mountains. Sparrows were brought here by the English in the 1860s, and since then, they’ve spread to our offshore islands and across the Pacific as far as Hawaii. The Hawaii introduction was via ship, not flight, when someone took nine birds to Oahu in 1871. Breeding males sport a natty black bib, white mutton chop sideburns, swept back chestnut eyebrows and a soft grey cap. Females and young males are a bit less showy, in various shades of brown.