It's just a dunnock

It is easy to overlook these quiet little brown jobs when there are various colourful tits, finches, blackbirds and other birds about.

Over time we have grown rather fond of these little 'hedge-sparrows'. They don't get into fights, just quietly get on with feeding without any aggro, except that the occasional territorial robin may attack one, mistaking its robin-like profile for an intruder. When one looks carefully, their brown plumage is attractively patterned. They often hop about in companionable pairs (but the RSPB reckons that they can be promiscuous). This one is still gathering food and carrying it to a nest nearby, though it is late in the breeding season.

All K-S2 with smc Pentax-DA 55-300, at f/8 ISO400, focal length 210 or 260mm. Heavily cropped from APS-C to about 1000 pix wide..

Lovely job. Also, good info provided about the bird. I appreciated that.

Nice photos of an often under-appreciated bird. Mrs L and I are also quite fond of dunnocks. They go about their business without making a fuss and are regular visitors to the patio. As one of the first birds to start singing in the year, they are a welcome sign that winter will soon be over. Mind you, their song does get on my nerves after a while... .

Steve

Dunnocks and sparrows are the most common in our garden. I rather like the dunnocks colouring

Thanks, friends, for your comments.

By chance it was my 93rd birthday yesterday. I was also recovering from a mild bout of covid-19, so it suited me to sit in the sunshine, with a Pentax on my lap, photographing the birds as they came and went.

Martin

I remember walking an early winter morning and a dunnock was facing the rising sun, singing its heart out and its breath vaporising in the chilly air. A beautiful song and very welcome at that time. They aren’t related to sparrows, it’s other name is hedge accentor and their nearest relative is the alpine accentor in - you guessed it - the Alps.