Granddad’s Camera
Dunnock, as it appears in the game

No.203 · Birds · Common

Dunnock

Prunella modularis

A quiet, slate-grey and brown bird that shuffles under hedges like a mouse. Its love life is anything but quiet.

When to look

All year, mostly at dawn and day.

Time of day

Best time
Dawn to mid-morning; sings from Jan to July. Ground feeding at hedge bases.
Where in the game
Millbrook (garden, churchyard and urban)
Size
Length about 14 cm
Weight
About 21.2 g (BTO adult average)
Lifespan
Typically about 2 years once breeding; oldest ringed bird 10 years 7 months (BTO)
Population
About 3 million territories in the UK, down 43% since 1967 (BTO)
Status
Amber (as listed by BTO)

Diet

Insects, spiders and small seeds picked from the ground; comes to spilt seed under feeders.

Habitat

Hedges, shrubby gardens, scrub and woodland edge; present in 93% of UK squares all year.

Breeding

4–5 eggs, incubated by the female for 14–15 days; chicks fledge in 12–14.5 days. Usually 2 broods, sometimes 3 (BTO).

Field signs

  • Grey head and breast with brown streaked back and a thin, pointed bill
  • Creeping, shuffling walk under bushes, flicking both wings
  • Fast, tinkling, tuneless warble from a bush-top perch

Did you know?

  • Dunnocks live a complicated love life: both sexes may mate with several partners (BTO).
  • A 'hungry gap' in February and March, when natural food runs short, can hit their survival (BTO).
  • Sometimes called the 'hedge sparrow', it is not related to sparrows at all; it has a thin insect-eater's bill.

Moments worth waiting for

  • Singing from the top January to June, dawn
    A dunnock leaves the hedge base and sings from the very top of a bare shrub, wings flicking.

Photo tip

Sit still by a hedge with spilt seed at its base and let it come to you. Shoot from ground level at first light, and use the song perch in spring when it is more open.

Be a good naturalist

Leave hedges untouched during nesting (Mar–Aug). Give ground food only in small amounts so it is eaten the same day.

The law

Protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it is an offence to damage an active nest.

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