General
Information is based on dictionaries and other sources. Comments and corrections welcome.
The names in common standard usage are 百靈 (sometimes 百靈鳥 ), literally meaning 'hundred spirit' or 'hundred clever' and 雲雀 (literally 'cloud sparrow'), which ornithologists use for larks in the genus Alauda.
Chinese has a multiplicity of traditional or dialect names for the skylark. These include:
| 白靈靈 | 'white spirit-spirit' | |
| 白靈鸟 | 'white spirit bird' | |
| 百翎雀 | 'hundred plume sparrow' | |
| 朝天柱 | 'towards heaven pillar' | |
| 大鷚 | 'large pipit' | |
| 高天鳥 | 'tell heaven bird' | |
| 告天子 | 'tell heaven' | |
| 叫天鳥 | 'call heaven bird' | |
| 叫天雀 | 'call heaven sparrow' | |
| 叫天子 | 'call heaven' | |
| 天鷚 | 'heaven pipit' | |
| 天鳥 | 'heaven bird' | |
| 噪天 | 'noisy to heaven' |
Quite a number of these names (including 雲雀 ) refer to the skylark's habit of singing while rapidly flying straight up, which makes it look as if the bird is calling to the sky. Several names compare the lark to a kind of pipit. Several names also use the word 靈 or spirit, possibly due to the popular belief that a skylark is the soul of a person who has returned from the dead.
In some dialect names, 百靈 'hundred spirit' is transformed into 白靈 'white spirit'. Possibly the 'hundred spirits' name came first, but folk etymology came into play to reinterpret the meaning. 百靈 'hundred spirit' has also been written 百翎 in one of the names above, treating as 'plume, feather'. This is a very literate folk etymology.
In Chinese, there is a popular belief that the skylark is the spirit of a person who has come back from the dead. This is found in the expression: 死了變成白靈鳥，飛來也要卯親親 'Becomes a skylark after death and flies back to visit its relatives'.
Species names
SCIENTIFIC & ENGLISH |
CHINESE |
JAPANESE |
OTHER |
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| Calandrella | ||||||||
Latin |
English |
Chinese (Taiwan) |
Chinese (Mainland) |
Other Ch |
Japanese |
Other J |
Korean |
Vietnamese |
Calandrella brachydactyla |
Greater short-toed lark | 大短趾百靈 (大短趾百灵) 'large short-toed hundred-spirit' |
(大短趾百靈) 大短趾百灵 'large short-toed hundred-spirit' (2, 3, 4) (短趾百靈) 短趾百灵 'short-toed hundred-spirit' (1, 5. Alternative in 3)  Taxonomy |
短趾沙百靈 (短趾沙百灵) 'short-toed sand hundred-spirit' (6, 7) 白眉 (白眉) 'white eyebrow' |
ヒメコウテンシ (姫告天子) hime kōtenshi 'princess tell-heaven' |
쇠종다리 soe-jongdari 'small lark' |
| Calandrella cheleensis |
Asian short-toed lark Mongolian short-toed lark Salt-marsh lark |
亞洲短趾百靈 (亚洲短趾百灵) 'Asian short-toed hundred-spirit' |
(短趾百靈) 短趾百灵 'short-toed hundred-spirit' (1, 2, 3, 4) (亞洲短趾百靈) 亚洲短趾百灵 'Asian short-toed hundred-spirit' (5. Alternative in 1, 3) |
アジアコヒバリ (アジア小雲雀) ajia ko-hibari 'Asian small lark' (hibari written 'cloud sparrow') |
コヒバリ (小雲雀) ko-hibari 'small lark' Taxonomy |
북방쇠종다리 bukbang-soe-jongdari 'northern small lark' |
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| Alauda | ||||||||
Latin |
English |
Chinese (Taiwan) |
Chinese (Mainland) |
Other Ch |
Japanese |
Other J |
Korean |
Vietnamese |
Alauda
arvensis |
Eurasian skylark Skylark Northern skylark |
歐亞雲雀 (欧亚云雀) 'Eurasian cloud sparrow' |
(雲雀) 云雀 'cloud sparrow' |
魚鱗燕 (鱼鳞燕) 'fish-scaled swallow' |
ヒバリ (雲雀) hibari 'lark' written 'cloud sparrow' Taxonomy |
종다리 jongdari 'lark' |
| Alauda gulgula |
Oriental skylark Lesser skylark Small skylark |
小雲雀 (小云雀) 'small cloud sparrow' |
(小雲雀) 小云雀 'small cloud sparrow' |
小阿勒 (小阿勒) 'small a-le' |
タイワンヒバリ (台湾雲雀) taiwan hibari 'Taiwan lark' (hibari written 'cloud sparrow') |
Chim Sơn ca 'son ca bird' (ca = 'sing') |
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