Dunnock relatively lower success for females. In times of scarcity, female territories expand to accommodate the lack of resources, causing males to have a more difficult time monopolizing females. Hence, females gain a reproductive advantage over males in this case. The dunnock possesses variable mating systems. Females are often polyandrous, breeding with two or more males at once, which is quite rare among birds. This multiple mating system leads to the development of sperm competition amongst the male suitors. DNA fingerprinting has shown that chicks within a brood often have different fathers, depending on the success of the males at monopolising
The Golden Bird The Golden Bird "The Golden Bird" is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, number 57, about the pursuit of a golden bird by a gardener's three sons. A French version, collected by Paul Sébillot in "Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne", is called "Le Merle d'or" (The Golden Blackbird). Andrew Lang included that variant in "The Green Fairy Book" (1892). It is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 550, "The Golden Bird", a Supernatural Helper. Other tales of this type include "The Bird 'Grip'", "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf", "How Ian Direach got the