�y��vlog

Once called the hedge sparrow, the dunnock is dark greyish-purple and brown, with a thin bill.

Stephen Moss unveils the often surprising roots of avian etymology and offers insight into fierce, long-standing debates such as that over Prunella modularis, variously known as the dunnock and hedge sparrow.

The dunnock, known to some as the hedge sparrow, is a European bird.

Mr. Attenborough recounts a particularly delicious example from his 1998 series, “The Life of Birds,” one that revealed shocking moral corruption among hedge sparrows.

There is an understated humour in the poem which brings the world of the hedge sparrows, and indeed ourselves, into sharp focus.