Like many species of British birds, both the dunnock and the house sparrow are small and brown in appearance. In fact, the name “dunnock” comes from an Old English word meaning “little brown”, and although it is sometimes called a hedge sparrow, it actually belongs to a different family, the Accentors.
Distinguishing a dunnock from a male house sparrow is relatively straightforward due to the latter’s distinctive black cap. However, telling it apart from a female house sparrow can be a little trickier, particularly when observing these birds from a distance.
Dunnock
The dunnock has greyer plumage overall which is particularly noticeable in the head pattern. Unlike the house sparrow, its streaked upperparts extend down the sides of its underparts, which are entirely plain in the sparrow.
The dunnock also has a slender, dark bill, in contrast to the house sparrow’s thicker, yellow bill, and its eye is pale, whereas the house sparrow’s eye is dark.
Female house sparrow
Dark eye
1 of 4Plain underparts
2 of 4 Chunky, yellow bill 3 of 4 Stripe through eye 4 of 4The female house sparrow has brown plumage with a streaked back and plain underparts, along with a pale stripe through the eye which is absent in the dunnock.
Behaviour offers another clue for identification. House sparrows are noisy, sociable birds often found in flocks, whereas dunnocks tend to be seen on their own or in pairs, and are quite fidgety as they hop along the ground.
