A DNA analysis by Glenn-Peter Sætre and colleagues published in 2011 indicated an origin of the Italian sparrow through hybridisation between the Spanish and house sparrows, and Sætre and colleagues argued that given its origins and the limited extent of hybridisation, the treatment as a distinct species was supported.

The male's upperparts are bright chestnut, and its underparts are pale grey, lacking the black streaking of the Spanish sparrow.

The male gives a chreep call like that of the Spanish sparrow to proclaim nest ownership, and a faster version of this as part of courtship display.

[3][15] Many authorities, including the Handbook of the Birds of the World, recognise it as a separate species, if only for convenience.

[10][16] Others, including many conservation groups, consider the Italian sparrow a simple hybrid and ignore it.

[12][19] Although it hybridises with the house sparrow in a sparsely populated contact zone in the Alps, the contact zone is characterized by relatively abrupt changes in species-specific male plumage, suggesting that partial reproductive isolation based on plumage may also have developed between these two taxa.

[12][19] The Italian sparrow is found in northern and central Italy, Corsica, and small parts of France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia.

[3] Its distribution was described by Italian zoologist Enrico Hillyer Giglioli in 1881 as professing "'Conservative opinions'; for it keeps strictly within our current political frontiers".

[20] At the northernmost edge of its range in the southern Alps, there is a narrow hybrid zone about 20–30 km (12–20 mi) wide with the house sparrow.

[14][23][30][31] The Italian sparrow is associated with human habitations, inhabiting towns, cities, and agricultural areas.

In most cities in Italy, it shares the urban environment with the Eurasian tree sparrow,[15][32][33] and in some parts of Naples, it is replaced entirely by this species.

[34][35] The Italian sparrow's breeding population is believed to comprise 5 to 10 million pairs, 750,000 to 900,000 of which are estimated to live in urban areas.