Petronia petronia
Silhouette: Andrew Butko (modified) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The rock sparrow or rock petronia (Petronia petronia) is a small passerine bird in the sparrow family Passeridae. It is the only species in the genus Petronia. It breeds on barren rocky hills from Madeira and the Canary Islands east through the Iberian Peninsula and western north Africa, across southern Europe and through southwestern and central Asia to Mongolia and the north and west of China. It is resident in the west of its range, but some Asian birds may migrate to more southerly areas, or move to lower altitudes in mountains, in winter.
The first formal description of the rock sparrow was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae. He introduced the binomial name Fringilla petronia. It is now the only species in the genus Petronia that was described by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829. Petronia is a local name for the rock sparrow from the Bologna area of Italy.
Seven subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yerevan Zoo | 🇦🇲 Armenia |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rock Petronia sighting in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park on a given day, based on 146 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 122 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rock Petronia in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park on a given day, against about 30% in September and December, the lowest months. January–April and October–November have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rock Petronia sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Rock Petronia sightings, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Ecrins National Park (France, about 10%) and Monfragüe National Park (Spain, about 10%).
Same family: Passeridae
The closest relatives of the Rock Petronia that you can see in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (family Passeridae, Old World Sparrows) are White-winged Snowfinch (about 60%), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (about 30%) and Saxaul Sparrow (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rock Petronia is recorded against all the birds logged in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (146 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
