Dunnock

Dunnock
	Dunnock ( Prunella modularis )
Systematics
Order :	Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination :	Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily :	Passeroidea
Family :	Brown cells (Prunellidae)
Genre :	Brown cells ( Prunella )
Type :	Dunnock
Scientific name
	Prunella modularis
	( Linnaeus , 1758)

The Heckenbraunelle ( Prunella modularis ) is a bird art from the genus Accentors , the only genus in the same family Accentors (Prunellidae). The dunnock is a widespread and frequent breeding and summer bird in Central Europe , but because of its inconspicuous plumage, it is usually only noticeable through its vocalizations. In some areas of Central Europe it is even an annual bird. Dunnock are particularly found in young spruce stands. In the mountains they can be found in the knee wood region.

description

The dunnock is almost 15 cm long and thus slightly smaller than a sparrow. It weighs an average of 20 grams. Chest and head are lead gray to slate gray; The back and wings are dark brown and black striped. The dark, thin beak is characteristic. Males and females look alike.

The call is a thin, high "ziht"; the singing consists of a hasty, simple, not loud, ascending and descending clang ( listen to the singing ^?^/ⁱ ).

ecology

nutrition

The food in summer consists of small caterpillars , beetles , larvae , pupae and spiders . In winter they feed on fine seeds . The particularly heavily used food plants include nettle , dock , elderberry , poppy seed, chickweed, knotweed , gauchheil , purslane as well as grasses and sedges. In spring it also eats alder seeds .

distribution

Distribution of the dunnock: green = year-round, yellow = breeding area, blue = wintering area.

Distribution in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East: green = year-round, yellow = breeding area, blue = wintering area

The dunnock occurs in Europe in the temperate zone and partly in the boreal zone up to the tree line . The distribution area extends from Great Britain and Ireland in an easterly direction to the Urals. The southern limit of distribution runs through northern Spain and the Pyrenees, southern France, the southern edge of the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains. The northern limit of the distribution area is northern Finland and the White Sea coast and in an easterly direction about the 61st to 63rd northern latitude. In Central Europe, the nominate form occurs from the low-lying areas of the North and Baltic Sea coasts to the tree line in the Alps and Carpathians. Distribution gaps can be found in arid areas and continentally influenced areas. In the south-east of Central Europe, it is concentrated on floodplains and low mountain ranges.

Dunnock are partial migrants that are only completely absent in higher-lying and climatically unfavorable areas in winter. They move to southern Spain and northern Africa.

In New Zealand from 1867 to 1882 several hundred dunnock were released by European immigrants and have spread as breeding birds over the whole country (with the exception of a few islands).

habitat

The dunnock lives on the edges of forests , in gardens , parks and bushes , in the Alps also in the Krummholzzone . It reaches its highest settlement density on areas that are very dense with young spruce. There can be between five and fifteen breeding pairs per 10 hectares. On coniferous forest areas with a higher population of conifers, the settlement density drops to two pairs. Comparable values are also achieved for mixed and deciduous forests.

Breeding biology

Dunnock's nest with an egg

Gelege, Museum Wiesbaden collection

Dunnock nestlings a few days old

Dunnellas have very complex relationships. Since the females also occupy territories and these can overlap with the territories of two males, females occasionally have two males as partners. Just as often, males have several females or a dominant pair occupy a territory, in which inferior but also mated males help with brood care.

The nest is hidden in the thicket low above the ground. It is usually between two feet and three meters on the shady side of a tree, shrub, or low bush. It consists of a bowl made of stalks over which mosses are placed. Then it is padded with hair and feathers. There are two annual broods in April and July. The first brood is often lost. The conspicuously colored eggs are easy prey for nest predators in April in the still sparse vegetation. The clutch consists of three to six green-blue eggs and is incubated primarily by the female for 13 to 14 days. The young are then fed by both parents for 11 to 14 days.

The New Zealand dunnock breed from August to January and raise two to three clutches during this time.

Duration

The total European population is estimated at around twelve to 26 million breeding pairs at the beginning of the 21st century. That corresponds to more than 95 percent of the world's population. Countries with more than one million breeding pairs include Finland, Russia, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and Norway. The Central European population is estimated at 2.8 to 4.7 million breeding pairs.

The stock is considered stable overall. In Central Europe there has been a significant increase in the population and area expansion since the end of the 19th century. The species has benefited from the increasing planting of spruce cultures in the lowlands in areas. In Hungary it has spread continuously from the floodplains to the conifer-rich margins of settlement. Basically, however, the populations fluctuate strongly, since especially hard winters result in a very high mortality rate in this species.

The dunnock in literature

Play media file

Dunnock at a feeding point

The Victorian ornithologist and pastor Francis Orpen Morris chose the dunnock as an example of modesty and restraint in his A history of British Birds, which is very popular in Great Britain . Francis Orpen Morris, however, was not aware of the complex mating behavior of the dunnock.

The English novelist Nigel Hinton described in his work In the Heart of the Valley "a year in the life of the dunnock in a small English valley".

Individual evidence

↑ Bauer et al., P. 443
^ ^A ^b Barrie Heather, Hugh Robertson: The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Penguin Books, 2015, ISBN 978-0-14-357092-9 , p. 437.
↑ Bezzel, p. 385
↑ Bezzel, p. 385
↑ Collin Harrison and Peter Castell: Field Guide Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings , HarperCollins Publisher, revised edition from 2002, ISBN 0-00-713039-2 , p. 231
↑ Bauer et al., P. 443 and p. 444
↑ Bauer et al., P. 444
↑ Stephen Moss: Birds Britannia. HarperCollins Publisher, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-00-741344-7 , p. 27.

literature

Einhard Bezzel : birds. BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-405-14736-0 .
Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel and Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 2: Passeriformes - passerine birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-648-0 .