Dunnock
Prunella modularis
Dunnock · Dungeness · 20 December 2025
A Dunnock in the scrub at Dungeness in December, easy to dismiss at a glance as just another brown bird. It is a bird of hedges, scrub and gardens across Europe, feeding on the ground under cover, and one of the commonest birds in Britain.
The slate-grey face and breast and the thin, insect-eating bill separate it cleanly from any sparrow once you look properly. An unusually complicated breeding system for a bird this drab: multiple males and females often mate within a single shared territory, and a male will peck at a female's rear before mating to eject a rival's sperm. The Victorians held it up as a model of modesty.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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