Dunnock
Prunella modularis
Photo: Александр Балаев · iNaturalist · CC-BY-NC 4.0 (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Dunnock
Rather drab but distinctive little bird: note slender, thrush-like bill (not stout, like superficially similar sparrows), blue-gray head sides, streaked back. Usually seen as singles or pairs, hopping on lawns or paths with distinctive shuffling gait. Found in a variety of open scrubby and wooded habitats, from low bleak heathland to parks, gardens, and farmland with hedges. Undistinguished, slightly tinny, rambling song has an even, warbled cadence; distinctive when learned. A Eurasian native, introduced to New Zealand and a few surrounding islands.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 68 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Palestinian Territory
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Tunisia
- Türkiye
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom