Siberian Accentor

Prunella montanella

Identify the Siberian Accentor by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

The Siberian Accentor is a small, secretive songbird that breeds from the Urals across northern Siberia and winters mainly in Korea and eastern China. It is brown above with chestnut streaks and has a bold head pattern with a dark crown and cheeks and a broad ochre-yellow supercilium. It lives in subarctic willow and birch thickets, often near water. It occasionally strays to Europe, especially in irruption years.

Did you know?

In autumn 2016 an unprecedented influx of Siberian Accentors reached western Europe.
It lays glossy, deep blue-green eggs.

About the species

Identification

A small accentor with a dark brown-streaked back and a warm brown overall tone. Its head is strongly patterned: a broad ochre-yellow supercilium and throat set against a dark crown and cheeks, which separates it from Dunnock, whose head and breast are grey. The breast is buffish-orange.

Family

Prunellidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, orange, yellow, black, grey

About the habitat

Subarctic willow and birch scrub, open conifer woodland and spruce taiga, often by rivers and bogs; in winter scrub, thickets and field edges.

Diet

Mainly insects picked from the ground and low vegetation; in winter also seeds and berries.

Behaviour

Skulking and quiet, it forages low in shrubs and on the ground with short hops and dashes. It sings from the tops of bushes and trees, mostly at dawn early in the breeding season. It builds an open cup nest in dense shrubs or trees and lays glossy blue-green eggs.

Sources

Photo: Jargal Lamjav from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siberian Accentor (Prunella montanella) - Сибирийн хайруулдай (16435139700).jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_accentor

Siberian Accentor

Did you know?

About the species

Sources

See also