BASIC PRINCIPLES

❝Somewhat intermediate between sparrows and warblers or chats, accentors are exclusively Palearctic and largely montane

are exclusively Palearctic and largely montane, the distribution of many centred on the high mountains of Asia. Nevertheless, three species are on the British list, one being among our commonest birds, the others both belonging in the ‘dream rarity’ category.

Dunnock

This species has an almost exclusively European distribution. It is largely a resident in Britain, although there are also some arrivals from the Continent. It is a familiar sight in parks, gardens and woodland throughout the country. Dunnock needs little introduction. It is shy, unobtrusive and a little skulking and its flight is typically low and jerky into thick cover. Structurally, it is short winged and slightly long tailed.

As with all the accentors, the sexes are alike and, though usually regarded as somewhat drab, brown and ‘sparrow like’, it is in fact a rather subtly beautiful bird with soft grey hues in the head contrasting with rich dark russet brown in the body. The upperparts and flanks are well streaked and, at a distance, the whole bird appears rather dark.

The song is a sequence of quite loud and clear notes, the call a rather discordant piping.

Alpine Accentor

A more typical accentor in that it is a high mountain specialist, Alpine Accentor occurs in boulder fields with only short plant cover. Its range extends from Iberia and North Africa in the west to Japan in the east and it is almost always encountered at high altitude, although it descends a little in winter. It rarely wanders away from the mountains, however, and is therefore very rare in Britain, with just 39 records to date and only half of these since 1950. April and May are the best months to find one here, but there are also records in autumn and winter. Unsurprisingly, the distribution of British occurrences is heavily skewed towards coastal locations in the south and south-east, where rocky habitats, or at least the closest approximation, are favoured. This is a big, chunky accentor, larger and heavier than Dunnock, with a rather fat body, longer wings and a short tail. Its flight is confident and rather lark-like on long, triangular wings.

The bill has extensive yellow at the base. Further eye-catching features include prominent rusty flanks, a narrowly white-tipped tail, dark markings in the undertail coverts, pale grey hues in the head and well-streaked upperparts, a pale throat patch and blackish greater coverts which form a dark panel between whitish tips to the median and greater coverts. Vagrant Alpine Accentors are likely to be quiet, but on the breeding grounds they give a bubbling, trilling call.

Siberian Accentor

As indicated by its name, this species breeds from just west of the Urals eastward across the whole width of Siberia to the Pacific coast. It is not a montane species, frequenting the pine and birch forests of the tundra zone, particularly favouring the edges of bogs. It is more of a migrant than the previous two species, withdrawing from northern latitudes to winter further south in China and Korea.

After a long period of sporadic occurrences as near as Scandinavia, this was for many years a dream bird for British birders. These dreams finally became reality in the extraordinary influx of the species to northern Europe in the late autumn of 2016. This irruption saw no fewer than 14 reach Britain, all on the Northern Isles and down the east coast south to Yorkshire. Since that heady autumn, though, the trail has gone cold again and it might be some time before this species graces our shores again.

Siberian Accentor is a beautiful bird, every inch the classic ‘Sibe’, with long mustard-coloured supercilia and underparts, dark ear coverts with a pale area in the rear, dark crown sides and rusty-hued upperparts. It is easy to identify, requiring

FURTHER READING

separation only from the next species.

The call is a high-pitched ringing, almost Waxwing-like ti ti ti.

This species is mainly confined to the mountains of Central Asia and the western Himalayas, but there is also an outlier population in the Urals. It favours mature conifer forests on the upper slopes.

The Urals population is doubtless responsible for a handful of Scandinavian occurrences but, as yet, none have reached Britain. However, now that Siberian Accentor has occurred here, this is certainly among the most sought-after new birds for Britain. The Northern Isles and the east coast clearly represent the best bet, but some Scandinavian birds have been in winter so a surprise occurrence underneath an inland bird table is not an impossibility. Black-throated Accentor looks similar to Siberian, but is duller, less rufous and more cold brown above, with a whiter supercilium and more streaked flanks. Most have an obvious clearly demarcated blackish throat patch, but on young birds (particularly females) this can be partially obscured by pale feather tips and can therefore, on a quick view, invite confusion with Siberian.

The call is a high-pitched ti ti ti. ■

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2 Autumn adult Dunnock autumn (Pisa, Italy, 6 November 2009). Dunnock’s distinctive grey and brown hues, which make it resemble a sparrow species, are shown to good effect here. The head is a beautiful soft grey, while the streaking in the upperparts and flanks is a distinctive rich brown. The ‘dotted’ patterning formed by white tips to the greater coverts is common to all the accentors. Note also the rather short-winged and long-tailed structure. 3 Autumn adult Alpine Accentor (Alquezar, Spain, 19 November 2016). The grey hues around the head of this Alpine Accentor resemble those of a Dunnock, but the rest of the bird is very different. As well as a rather stocky and short-tailed structure, note the extensive yellow in the bill base, lots of rusty striping in the flanks, heavy dark arrowhead markings in the undertail coverts and solid dark centres to the wing coverts which accentuate the white wing-bars.