Singing Dunnocks

21 Saturday Mar 2026

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, dunnock, Prunella modularis

If you live in the UK, you may not necessarily have realised it but I’m sure most of you will have heard at least one singing Dunnock already this year; they’ve been singing here in south Wales for at least a month, and, in fact, the epithet modularis in their scientific name (Prunella modularis) is Latin for ‘modulating’, i.e. varying the strength, tone, or pitch of your voice, something the Dunnock is very good at.

Today’s ‘did you know?’ information comes from the Woodland Trust website:

Dunnocks can raise several broods of chicks per year. This means the population can be maintained despite some nests being taken over by cuckoos.

As I’m sure most of you are aware, the Cuckoo practises brood parasitism, laying its eggs in the nests of certain other bird species, and then taking no part in the rearing of its offspring.

A jovial of Dunnocks

12 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

a jovial of dunnocks, birding, birdwatching, British birds, collective noun for dunnock, dunnock, fledgling birds, fledgling Dunnock, Prunella modularis

Apparently, a jovial is one of the traditional collective nouns for the Dunnock (Prunella modularis). Now don’t get me wrong, I love these little brown birds, I really do, but jovial is not an adjective I would normally use to describe them.

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Indeed, I can empathise with the sarcasm of this birder’s comments: ‘Any birdwatcher worth his salt knows of the joy brought about by watching a dull brown bird dullishly dull about in a dull shrub. Indeed, I find myself incredibly jovial every time I think I’ve seen a good bird and it turns out to be a dunnock.’

180912 dunnock (2)

However, while this little fledgling didn’t look anything like jovial, it certainly did make me smile. And, though my wander around Cosmeston produced some nice migrating birds, the highlight of my Monday was watching this little dumpling hopping along the path in front of me.

180912 dunnock (3)

From disappointment to delight

16 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, dunnock, Prunella modularis

170216-dunnock-1

‘I wonder if there’s anything up there to eat. Humans do sometimes leave food for us birds on these posts.’

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Disappointment, and a rather accusatory glare at me, perhaps hoping that I might remedy the lack of seeds but I didn’t have any.

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What a difference a week makes! The sun is shining, the dunnock stretches as high as it can to see if there’s any food and, joy, a kind human has left a huge pile of seeds!