English and Scientific Alpha Codes for North American Birds through the 47th AOU Supplement (2006).

Updated 24 January 2007

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) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). Pyle and DeSante (2005, North American Bird Bander 30:70-72) updated the list to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U. in Supplements 44 (Auk 120:923-931, 2003) and 45 (Auk 121:985-995, 2004), and Pyle and Desante (2006, North American Bird Bander 31:193-195) updated the list to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U. in Supplements 46 (Auk 122:1026-1031, 2005) and 47 (Auk 123:926-936, 2006). The following lists are based on these references.

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. Because we recognize the utility of alpha-code systems, we present two lists of alpha codes for use by North and Central American and Caribbean ornithologists. The first list contains four-letter codes, based on English names, broadly following the rules and strategies adopted by the BBL. This list differs from that of the BBL in two ways. First, all 2038 species recorded from the American Ornithologists' Union area (through 2004 according to their 45th supplement) are included, as well as 91 non-species forms (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 list 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 forms. We hope that this second list will be useful for ornithologists, particularly those in Latin American countries, who prefer using scientific rather than English names. These two lists will be updated every two years, following taxonomic and name changes adopted by the AOU in future biennial 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 phylogenetic order, alphabetical order by common name, and alphabetical order by scientific name), and a unicode text file that can be downloaded and imported into a database or spreadsheet program (e.g., Excel, dBase, Paradox) to allow searches.

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 - Tab-delimited text file, sorted in phylogenetic order (TXT)