ID for this please.

[LynM]

At first I thought it was a Dunnock, now I'm not so sure! Seen in the hedge just behind Chesil Beach at West Bexington this afternoon.

[Dogghound]

Yes its a Dunnock.

[faz]

a dunnock for me too

[faz]

Originally Posted by faz

a dunnock for me too

or hedge sparrow as it is also known

[LynM]

Fine! Thank you. I've obviously never seen one keep still for so long to get a good look!

[theresa dockery]

Originally Posted by faz

or hedge sparrow as it is also known

Or Hedge Accentor...possibly the worst bird name EVER.

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by theresa dockery

Or Hedge Accentor...possibly the worst bird name EVER.

I know - it's not a patch on the really good bird names like Shaft-tailed Whydah, Zitting Cisticola, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo and Pririt Batis!

The Hedge Accentor name isn't actually all that bad when you look at the etymology - Accentor apparently comes from the Latin ad + cantor and basically means "a singer". Dunnock is derived from "Dun" (brown colour) with the old english diminutive suffix "ock" added (similar to "hillock", which means a little hill.
So is calling the bird a "Hedge Singer" better than calling it a "Little Brown Job"?

[Deb London]

I have no problem with the name Hedge Accentor. As a child I used to think it was rather exotic.

[theresa dockery]

Originally Posted by RoyW

So is calling the bird a "Hedge Singer" better than calling it a "Little Brown Job"?

'Accentor' has always seemed a bit pretentious to me

I have a slight obssesion with the meanings/etymology of scientific names, and to me - 'accentor' seems like chimaeric anglified Latin...

Besides, the species name 'modularis' means pretty much the same thing (Prunella = little plum/sloe, modularis = composer of music/singer) - which almost translates to 'hedge singer'.

Dunnock seems more down-to-earth and more like an actual bird name...don't all birds have semi-daft common names, if you really think about it?

[theresa dockery]

Not to mention the 't' in accentor gets mangled by my Glaswegian glottal stop, making it sound even more ridiculous.