Prunella modularis
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is a small passerine, or perching bird, found throughout temperate Europe and into Asian Russia. Dunnocks have also been introduced and become common in New Zealand. It is the most widespread member of the accentor family; most other accentors are limited to mountain habitats. Other, largely archaic, English names for the dunnock include hedge accentor, hedge sparrow, hedge warbler, and titling.
The dunnock was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He coined the binomial name of Motacilla modularis. The specific epithet is from the Latin modularis "modulating" or "singing". This species is now placed in the genus Prunella that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.
The name "dunnock" comes from the English dun (dingy brown, dark-coloured) and the diminutive form of bird ock (thus, the original "little brown bird"), while "accentor" is from post-classical Latin and means a person who sings with another. The genus name Prunella is from the German Braunelle, "dunnock", a diminutive of braun, "brown".
Seven subspecies are accepted by the IOC... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Leeds | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Cologne | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Dublin | 🇮🇪 Ireland | |
| 8 | Essen | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Brussels | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 10 | Paris | 🇫🇷 France |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Dunnock sighting in Bucharest on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 109th most-seen of the 128 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dunnock in Bucharest on a given day, against under 5% in January–September and November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dunnock sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
30th of 46
Of the 46 cities where we can rate Dunnock sightings, Bucharest ranks 30th at under 5%. The best odds are in Liverpool (United Kingdom, about 70%), Manchester (United Kingdom, about 60%) and Birmingham (United Kingdom, about 50%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Dunnock that you can see in Bucharest (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Hooded Crow (about 80%), Eurasian Blackbird (about 60%) and Great Tit (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dunnock is recorded against all the birds logged in Bucharest (8 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
