What are my dunnocks doing? (1 Viewer)

[phoen1x]

There are three that are regularly about, I assume two males and a female since one is rather large at the moment and the other two aren't. Today the two assumed males have been chasing each other non stop for the last few hours, around the wall and trellis, then round other gardens and back. Why?

 

[Keith Dickinson]

There isn't a difference in size between the sexes just in colouration, the female being duller than the male.
However I think you are right in assuming the birds are male and the chasing will have been to establish which is the dominant bird in the breeding group.
Dunnocks have quite complicated breeding habits, with trios rather than pairs being extremely common, the trio usually being 1 female 2 males but it can be the other way round. There have been instances of 2 males and 2 females forming a breeding group!

 

[phoen1x]

With the size, I just meant that one looked fat and pregnant while the other two just looked normal. It was quite entertaining to watch this morning.

 

[rob stoff]

Dunnocks have particularly 'busy' sex lives, some details here:

http://www.gardenbirdwatch.org.uk/gbw/PUBLICATIONS/BIRDTABLE/BT50_8-11lr.pdf

Rob

 

[young ian]

There isn't a difference in size between the sexes just in colouration, the female being duller than the male.However I think you are right in assuming the birds are male and the chasing will have been to* establish which is the dominant bird in the breeding group. Dunnocks have quite complicated breeding habits, with trios rather than pairs being extremely common, the trio usually being 1 female 2 males but it can be the other way round. There have been instances of 2 males and 2 females forming a breeding group!

Hello to everybody.********************** Could this situation (1 female +2male group )also apply to Robins?

 

[Keith Dickinson]

BWP doesn't list this as a normal arrangement, bigamy is mentioned but from context would seem to be 1 male with two separate females and thus two nests.

 

[young ian]

There isn't a difference in size between the sexes just in colouration, the female being duller than the male.
However I think you are right in assuming the birds are male and the chasing will have been to establish which is the dominant bird in the breeding group.
Dunnocks have quite complicated breeding habits, with trios rather than pairs being extremely common, the trio usually being 1 female 2 males but it can be the other way round. There have been instances of 2 males and 2 females forming a breeding group!

So sorry about that. To continue:-

I have observed two male Robins attending to
the same nest. I have not probed about the nesting
area to investigate so as not to disturb anything.
But observation suggest the involvement of the two
males.

Kind regards,
young Ian

 

[Keith Dickinson]

young Ian, there is no discernible difference between male and female robins, so how can you be sure you are watching 2 male robins?

 

[KnockerNorton]

Back to these dunnocks - the two birds chasing each other about could have been a male trying to lure a female away. Or two females fighting over territory/mates. It's easy to over-interpret these things. It's quite difficult to discern plumage differences on dunnocks, so females are not usually *noticeably* duller, just subtley so.

Re Robins, it's impossible to separate the sexes on plumage. But in terms of polygyny (bigamy), such set-ups are not uncommon among those garden birds that have been researched in depth.

 

[young ian]

young Ian, there is no discernible difference between male and female robins, so how can you be sure you are watching 2 male robins?

Keith,

I's don't say much. But, when I's do, you knows
why I's don't!!!

Most kindest regards,
Ian