The same Vietnamese name is given to the Fringillidae and the Emberizidae by Vo Quy and Nguyen Cu: Họ Sẻ dồng. Nguyen, Le and Phillipps use the name Họ Sẻ thông for the Fringillidae. |
General names
The following is based on analysis of dictionaries and other sources. Comments and corrections are welcome.
Vietnam does not have a large number of finch species and there is no unique name for the finches. Most of them are identified as some kind of Sẻ, normally referring narrowly to the sparrows, although it can be interpreted more broadly as covering sparrows and finches in general. To save clutter, in this table Sẻ is translated consistently as 'finch'.
One general V-E dictionary gives Chim sẻ khướư 'babbler finch bird' as the word for 'chaffinch', although these birds do not occur in Vietnam.
Under Vo and Nguyen's original scheme, the official names are deployed as follows:
| Vietnamese name | Genera | Notes |
| Sẻ thông 'pine finch' |
Greenfinches (Carduelis) | |
| Sẻ dồng 'field finch' |
Brambling (Fringilla) | Also used for the Buntings |
| Sẻ hồng 'rosy finches' |
Rosefinches (Carpodacus) | |
| Sẻ 'sparrow/finch' |
Bullfinches (Pyrrhula) | |
| Mỏ to 'large bill' |
Scarlet Finch (Haematospiza) Grosbeak (Coccothraustes = Eophona) |
May be related to English 'grosbeak' or French gros-bec |
| Mỏ chéo 'oblique/slanting bill' |
Crossbills (Loxia) |
In what appears to be an attempt to make the names more systematic, Nguyen, Le & Phillipps extend Sẻ thông 'pine finch' to four more species: the Brambling, the Eurasian Siskin, the Common Rosefinch, and the Brown Bullfinch. However, the unfortunate result of this is confusion in naming between the Brambling and the Black-headed Greenfinch, which is renamed as a Sẻ đồng, somewhat defeating the point of the exercise.
| Vietnamese name | Genera | Notes |
| Sẻ thông 'pine finch' |
Greenfinches (Carduelis) Brambling (Fringilla) Rosefinches (Carpodacus) Bullfinches (Pyrrhula) |
|
| Sẻ đồng 'field finch' |
Black-headed Greenfinch (Carduelis) | Used only for this species so as to avoid confusion with the Brambling |
| Mỏ to 'large bill' |
Scarlet Finch (Haematospiza) Grosbeak (Eophona) |
|
| Mỏ chéo 'oblique/slanting bill' |
Crossbills (Loxia) |
Species names
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Floating Menu by Milonic |
Tool tips by Walter Zorn |
