Italian sparrows are about 15 centimetres long - small enough to sit in the palm of your hand if they were tame. They are everywhere in Italy: balancing on caf茅 chairs, splashing in puddles, hopping along the cobbled streets, building scruffy nests in roof tiles.
Scientists think the Italian sparrow is a brand-new kind of bird. It seems to have started as a mix of two other sparrows - the house sparrow (which you might see in your garden) and the Spanish sparrow - that met in Italy long ago and decided to stay together. Their grandchildren slowly became a separate kind of bird that now does not mix freely with either parent.
Sparrows are very social. They live in small flocks, eat together, sleep together in bushes, and chatter constantly with little 'chip-chip' calls. If one sparrow finds a good supply of crumbs, it tells the others, and within minutes there is a noisy crowd.
Italian sparrows are part of everyday life in Italy. They are not exotic or rare-feeling - they are the little brown bird in every street, every park, every farmyard. But to a biologist they are remarkable: a brand-new species that scientists watched come into being.