Females have less boldly coloured plumage and bills, lacking the pattern of black stripes on the male's head.

Though it has lost parts of its range to habitat destruction caused by agriculture, it is not seriously threatened by human activities.

They are built in holes in tree cavities, earth banks, rocky slopes, and within man-made structures or the nests of birds of prey.

The saxaul sparrow's legs are pale or pinkish brown, with a tarsus length of 1.95 inches (50 mm).

[7][8] The male saxaul sparrow has bold markings, with a black stripe along the top of its head and another through its eye.

The head of the females of the subspecies ammodendri and nigricans is dingy grey with darker smudges on the forehead, behind its eyes, and on its throat.

[3] The female of the subspecies stoliczkae is buff-brown with a white throat, a conspicuous pale supercilium, darker forehead, and lighter cheeks.

[2][3][11] It gives a flight call transcribed as twerp, and a song described by Russian naturalist V. N. Shnitnikov as "not loud, but pleasantly melodious with fairly diversified intonations".

[2][10] The saxaul sparrow was first described by English zoologist John Gould in a March 1872 instalment of The Birds of Asia, from a specimen collected near Kyzylorda, now in southern Kazakhstan, by Russian naturalist Nikolai Severtzov.

[3][9][12][13][14] Severtzov had been planning to describe the species as Passer ammodendri for several years and had been distributing specimens among other naturalists.

J. Denis Summers-Smith considered that the Palaearctic Passer sparrows evolved about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.

Across its Central Asian distribution, the saxaul sparrow occurs in six probably disjunct areas, and is divided into at least three subspecies.

In a third area, sometimes recognised as a subspecies korejewi,[23] ammodendri birds breed sporadically in parts of central Turkmenistan, Iran, and possibly Afghanistan, migrating to the south during the winter.

[3][8][28] The subspecies nigricans, described by ornithologist L. S. Stepanyan in 1961, is found in northern Xinjiang's Manasi River valley.

[8][29] The saxaul sparrow is found in remote parts of Central Asia, where its distribution is believed to fall into six disjunct areas, although this is uncertain due to the scarcity of records.

[3][30][31] It is not believed to be threatened, since it is reported as locally common across a wide range, and hence it is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

It is shy in many areas, and spends much time hidden in foliage, but breeding birds in Mongolia were reported to be "quite confiding".

[7][34] When not breeding, it is social, and can form flocks of up to fifty birds, sometimes associating with Eurasian tree, Spanish, and house sparrows.

[34] Seeds, especially those of the saxaul, are most of its diet, though it also eats insects, especially while breeding, most commonly weevils, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.

[34] Isolated pairs are usual, though it sometimes breeds in small groups, with members of its own species as well as house and Eurasian tree sparrows.

[2][34][36][37] Nests in man-made structures are increasingly common, as large trees in the saxaul sparrow's habitat are removed.