New and Updated Alternate Common Names Available – eBird
Whether you know Podiceps cristatus as Great Crested Grebe, Bahri, or Somormujo lavanco, your eBird experience can display bird names in your preferred language. With 9 new options, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology now offers bird common names in 78 languages and regional dialects – including 15 variations of Spanish and 6 for French!
Recent additions to common names include Arabic, Asturian, Azerbaijani, Catalan, Gallegan, and Slovak as well as two new regional versions of Spanish (Peru and Paraguay) and one additional version of French customized for French Guiana. We also now have complete global namesets for German, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Slovak, Spanish (Spain), and Turkish. Dutch, Icelandic, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Swedish have names for 30-90% of eBird’s taxonomy.
There are regional versions of English too, so you can report Great Northern Divers and Grey Partridges instead of Common Loons and Gray Partridges. See the full list of available languages and learn more about bird common names in eBird.
Setting your preferred language for common names
Select your preferred language for common names on the web in your eBird Preferences: https://ebird.org/prefs. These will apply to eBird.org, Macaulay Library, and Birds of the World. Within the eBird Mobile and Merlin Bird ID apps, set your common name preference under Settings and Account. Please note that settings for common names are separate from the language display on the mobile and web interfaces.
Become a volunteer translator
Volunteer translators provide these names and are critical to the success of eBird and other Cornell Lab projects. Many thanks to our network of partners around the world for making more common name options available!
Do you want to help us translate Cornell Lab projects? Please fill out this form: Join the eBird translators team.
House sparrow © Christoph Moning / Macaulay Library
A sparrow by any other name…
To demonstrate the diversity of common names, here are 59 different options for Passer domesticus available in eBird, Merlin, the Macaulay Library, and Birds of the World:
Language
Common name
Arabic
دوري منزلي
Asturleonese
Pardal común
Azerbaijani
Dam sərçəsi
Bulgarian
Домашно врабче
Catalan
Pardal comú
Chinese – Mandarin (traditional)
家麻雀
Chinese, Simple
家麻雀
Creole, Haiti
Mwano kay
Croatian
Vrabac
Czech
vrabec domácí
Danish
Gråspurv
Dutch
Huismus
English, Kenya
House Sparrow
English, United States
House Sparrow
Euskera
Etxe-txolarrea
Faroese
Gráspurvur
Finnish
varpunen
French
Moineau domestique
Galician
Pardal común
German
Haussperling
Hebrew
דרור הבית
Hungarian
Házi veréb
Icelandic
Gráspör
Indonesian
Burung-gereja Rumah
Italian
Passera oltremontana
Japanese
イエスズメ
Korean
집참새
Latvian
Mājas zvirbulis
Lithuanian
Naminis žvirblis
Malayalam
അങ്ങാടിക്കുരുവി
Mongolian
Оронгийн бор шувуу
Norwegian
gråspurv
Polish
wróbel
Portuguese, Brazil
pardal
Portuguese, Portugal
Pardal-do-telhado
Romanian
Vrabie de casă
Russian
Домовый воробей
Serbian
Vrabac pokućar
Slovak
vrabec domový
Slovenian
Domači vrabec
Spanish
Gorrión común
Spanish, Argentina
Gorrión
Spanish, Chile
Gorrión
Spanish, Costa Rica
Gorrión Común
Spanish, Cuba
Gorrión
Spanish, Dominican Republic
Gorrión Doméstico
Spanish, Ecuador
Gorrión Europeo
Spanish, Mexico
Gorrión Doméstico
Spanish, Panama
Gorrión Doméstico
Spanish, Paraguay
Gorrión
Spanish, Peru
Gorrión Casero
Spanish, Puerto Rico
Gorrión Doméstico
Spanish, Spain
Gorrión común
Spanish, Uruguay
Gorrión
Spanish, Venezuela
Gorrión Común
Swedish
gråsparv
Thai
นกกระจอกใหญ่
Turkish
Serçe
Ukrainian
Горобець хатній
