Stumped (1 Viewer)

julesjarr

I always blink when something interesting happens

• Apr 9, 2006

• #1

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this !

I spotted this bird in my garden which I took to be some kind of thrush, I took a few snaps and looking at the photos in my books I have been stumped as to what exactly it is. The body looks thrush like but I can't match the colour to a specific type.

Help please

ThanXs

 

Attachments

• 
  Unknown.JPG

  66.1 KB · Views: 136

Last edited: Apr 9, 2006

luke

A Welsh birder in Dorset!

• Apr 9, 2006

• #2

julesjarr said:

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this !

I spotted this bird in my garden which I took to be some kind of thrush, I took a few snaps and looking at the photos in my books I have been stumped as to what exactly it is. The body looks thrush like but I can't match the colour to a specific type.

Help please

ThanXs

Click to expand...

is there supposed to be pics? might it be mistle thrush?

 

Last edited: Apr 10, 2006

C

Chris Oates

Why does a Black-headed Gull have a brown head...

• Apr 9, 2006

• #3

Hedge sparrow AKA Dunnock - here I see them at the beach acting like flycatchers or at my feeders - rarely in hedges.

 

cuckooroller

Registered User

• Apr 9, 2006

• #4

Agree with Chris. It's a Hedge Sparrow.

 

harr1y

Well-known member

• Apr 9, 2006

• #5

Yip i agree ..dunnock A.K.A hedge sparrow ...beautiful little bird and totally under-rated

 

D

dan pointon

Can't Stop

• Apr 9, 2006

• #6

Yep Hedge Sparrow

 

julesjarr

I always blink when something interesting happens

• Apr 10, 2006

• #7

Dunnock - Sparrow ?

Thank you all. As I am a novice I have looked up a Dunnock in my RSPB birds of britian and It appears to be in a diffrent family to the sparrows. Could someone help me with why it is known as a hedge sparrow.

Leanring all the time.

Thanks

 

cuckooroller

Registered User

• Apr 10, 2006

• #8

julesjarr said:

Thank you all. As I am a novice I have looked up a Dunnock in my RSPB birds of britian and It appears to be in a diffrent family to the sparrows. Could someone help me with why it is known as a hedge sparrow.

Leanring all the time.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Probably should be fielded by a Brit rather than a Rebel, but, genus Prunella is considered to be part of a larger family Passeridae (includes Old World Sparrows among other things). Some collocate the Accentors (this is an Accentor) in their own family Prunellidae, they are however related to the Old World Sparrows. I imagine the superficial resemblance and their preferance of countryside habitat has a lot to do with the name used in England of Hedge Sparrow. The rest of the world knows this bird as Hedge Accentor.

 

Andy Bright

Administrator

Staff member

• Apr 10, 2006

• #9

julesjarr said:

Could someone help me with why it is known as a hedge sparrow.

Leanring all the time.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I think it stems from the fact that many little brown/grey birds were simply called Sparrows in centuries gone by (and still by my father!), and the name stuck with this one. The Hedge Sparrow name seems to be on it's way out for this guy... more and more it is known as Dunnock. Hedge Accentor sounds more exotic and glamorous though

cheers
Andy