Dunnock

Dunnock ( Prunella modularis )

The Dunnock ( Prunella modularis ) is a species of bird in the genus Ellen Brown, the only genus in the same family Ellen Brown ( Prunellidae ). The Dunnock is in Central Europe a widespread and common breeding and summer bird, but usually only conspicuous by its vocalizations because of the inconspicuous plumage. In some areas of Central Europe, it is even one years bird. Dunnocks are to be found especially in young spruce stands. In the mountains they occur to the knee timber region.

Description

The Dunnock is about 15 cm long, slightly smaller than a sparrow. It weighs an average of 20 grams. Chest and head are lead- gray to slate gray; Back and wings are tired of striped dark brown and black. The dark, thin beak is characteristic. Males and females look alike. The call is a thin, high " ziht "; the song consists of a piece, simple, not loud, on ascending and descending clink (vocals listen? / i).

Ecology

Nutrition

The food in the summer include small caterpillars, beetles, larvae, pupae and spiders. In winter they feed on fine seeds. Among the most heavily used food crops include nettle and dock, elder, poppy, chickweed, knotweed, pimpernel, purslane, grasses and sedges. In the spring they will also eat seeds of alder.

Dissemination

The Dunnock is found in the temperate zone of Europe and partly in the boreal zone to the tree line. The distribution area covers Great Britain and Ireland eastwards to the Urals. The southern limit of distribution runs through the north of Spain and the Pyrenees, Southern France, the southern edge of the Alps and Carpathians. The northern border of the distribution area is Northern Finland and the White Sea coast and to the east about 61 to 63 degrees north latitude. In Central Europe, the nominate comes from the depths of the North Sea and Baltic Sea coast to the tree line in the Alps and Carpathians before. Dissemination gaps found in dry areas and continentally influenced areas. In the southeast of Central Europe is focused on flood plains and highlands.

Dunnocks are partially migratory, which are completely absent only in upland and climatically unfavorable areas in winter. You pull up to southern Spain and North Africa.

Habitat

The Dunnock lives on the edges of woods, in gardens, parks and bushes, in the Alps and in the coppice. Your highest population density reaches on surfaces that are passed very tight with young spruce trees. Here you can per 10 acres between five to fifteen breeding pairs occur. In coniferous forest areas with higher needle trees, the population density drops to two couples. Comparable results are also achieved for mixed and deciduous forests.

Breeding biology

Dunnocks have very complex relationships between couples. Since the females occupy areas and these may overlap with the mining districts of two males, Dunnock females have occasionally two males as partners. Equally often have several males females or a dominant pair occupies a territory, help with the inferior, but also breeding male in brood care.

The nest is built low to the ground hidden in the thicket. It is usually between 60 centimeters to three meters on the shady side of a tree, shrub or low bush. It consists of a bowl of stems, are spent on the Moose. Then it is lined with hair and feathers. There are two years broods in April and in July. The first brood is often lost. The strikingly colored eggs in April in the still sparsely trained vegetation easy prey for nest predators. The nest consists of three to six green blue eggs and 13 to 14 days mainly incubated by the female. The young are fed by both parents then another 11 to 14 days.

Stock

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

The stock is overall assessed as stable. In Central Europe has been recorded since the late 19th century, a significant population increase and range expansion. The species has benefited from the increasing planting of spruce crops in the lowland area wise. In Hungary it has continuously expanded from the floodplain in coniferous rich settlement edges. Basically, however, the stocks vary greatly, mainly because harsh winter draw a very high mortality rate in this species after themselves.

Dunnock and human

The Victorian ornithologist and pastor Francis Orpen Morris chose in his very popular work in the UK A history of British Birds, the Dunnock as an example of humility and restraint. Francis Orpen Morris, however, was not the complex mating behavior of the Dunnock aware.

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 ".