English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds through the 50th AOU Supplement (2009).

Updated 14 January 2010

Alphabetic (“alpha”) codes, abbreviations of English or scientific bird names, have long been employed by ornithologists. They allow quicker data entry than filling out the full English or scientific name of a species and they can also serve to cross-check other recorded names or numeric data. The U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) has long used alpha codes in banding data, and these codes have become an integral part of large ornithological programs across Canada and the United States; however, inconsistencies occur in the rules governing the alpha codes of the BBL, and their list does not include most species found exclusively in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Therefore, a new set of Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) in a rigorous manner to reflect American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) taxonomy and nomenclature (AOU 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). Pyle and DeSante (2005, 2006, 2009; North American Bird Bander 30:70-72, 31:193-195, 34:64-67) updated the list to reflect changes reported by the AOU in Supplements 44-49 (Auk 120:923-931, 2003; 121:985-995, 2004; 122:1026-1031, 2005; 124:1109-1115, 2007; and 125:758-768, 2008). To keep this list as current as possible, we now plan to update it as soon as possible after the AOU releases it's annual supplement. The lists here, therefore, are current through the 50th AOU supplement (Auk 126:705-714, 2009; North American Bird Bander 34:109-110, 2009).

We present two sets of alpha codes for use by North and Central American and Caribbean ornithologists. The first set contains four-letter codes, based on English names, broadly following the rules and strategies adopted by the BBL. This set differs from that of the BBL in two ways (see Pyle and DeSante 2003 for details). First, all 2055 species recorded from the AOU area (through 2009 according to their 50th supplement) are included, as well as 97 non-species taxa (many of which were recognized by the BBL) for which standardized English names are provided. Second, standardized, species-categorization definitions and conflict-resolution formulae have been derived and strictly adhered to. The second set of codes follows the same basic principles except that it contains six-letter codes based on the scientific names (genus, species, and subspecies) of the species or taxa. We hope that this second set will be useful for ornithologists, particularly those in Latin American countries, who prefer using scientific rather than English names. These two sets of codes will continue to be updated every two years, following taxonomic and name changes adopted by the AOU in future annual supplements.

View or download the English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds (160K) by clicking on one of the links below. There are four formats available: three Adobe Acrobat PDF documents (sorted in 2009 AOU phylogenetic order, alphabetical order by common name, and alphabetical order by scientific name), and a database file that can be opened by this or other commonly used programs (e.g., Excel, Access, Paradox) to allow searches. In each of the lists non-species taxa are marked with a "+" and four-letter and six letter codes that do not represent first-order letter combinations (see Pyle and DeSante 2003) due to conflicts with other species having the same codes, are marked with an asterisk (*).

Contact Peter Pyle (ppyle@birdpop.org) if you would like copies of older lists.

• English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds - sorted in phylogenetic order (PDF)



• English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds - sorted alphabetically by English Name (PDF)



• English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds - sorted alphabetically by Scientific Name (PDF)



• English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds - zipped database file, sorted in phylogenetic order (DBF); downloaded and unzipped file can be opened by Excel, Access, Paradox, etc.

“+” before English name indicates a non-species taxon
* Four-letter and six-letter codes that, because of conflicts, are not "1st-order" codes are marked with an asterisk. See Pyle and DeSante, North American Bird Bander 28:64-79 (2003) for more information.