The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is one of the many "small brown birds". It acquired its commonly used name around 1475 (donek) and it had settled on the current spelling by 1824. Country names abounded often including the word "hedge", and it was called "hedge sparrow" for a couple of centuries. It stopped being grouped with sparrows when it was realised that it fitted the accentor family. In the UK its is a bird of both rural and built up-areas. This bird was on the massacred hedge of a small block of flats towards the end of May, singing its heart out.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10
