Petronia petronia
Silhouette: Andrew Butko (modified) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rock Petronia sighting in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, based on 89 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 92nd most-seen of the 153 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rock Petronia in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to April, the lowest months.
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.
7th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Rock Petronia sightings, Sierra Nevada National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 50%), Ecrins National Park (France, about 10%) and Monfragüe National Park (Spain, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rock Petronia is recorded against all the birds logged in Sierra Nevada National Park (89 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.
