The Dunnock
Today I saw what I thought was a house sparrow patrolling an quiet area of grass at the back of the house. I decided to take a few pictures as I have not yet got an entry for the House Sparrow, but to my surprise on closer inspection the bird was a Dunnock.
Dunnocks are small brown birds like the sparrow. In fact their name derives from Old English Dun (brown) and Ock (small). They are also sometimes known by the nickname the hedge sparrow, but they are in fact unrelated to the sparrow family of birds. They are a UK peculiarity being the only bird in their species of Accentors.
Accentors are principally birds of mountainous Europe, Russia and Japan, and some of them are very colourful, but one of their species has broken off and succeeded in the UK and Ireland in the Dunnock.
Their numbers have been falling in the UK so the RSPB now give the bird Amber status for risk. This appears to be mainly because of modern farming methods eradicating the insects they relied upon for food.
(RSPB Illustration)
Dunnocks are small brown birds like the sparrow. In fact their name derives from Old English Dun (brown) and Ock (small). They are also sometimes known by the nickname the hedge sparrow, but they are in fact unrelated to the sparrow family of birds. They are a UK peculiarity being the only bird in their species of Accentors.
Accentors are principally birds of mountainous Europe, Russia and Japan, and some of them are very colourful, but one of their species has broken off and succeeded in the UK and Ireland in the Dunnock.
Their numbers have been falling in the UK so the RSPB now give the bird Amber status for risk. This appears to be mainly because of modern farming methods eradicating the insects they relied upon for food.
(RSPB Illustration)
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