Prunellidae
イワヒバリ科
iwa-hibari ka

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Species list may not be current. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green Lettering Green lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

In Japan, there are three main species of prunellid.

1. Prunella collaris is known as イワヒバリ iwa-hibari or 'rock-lark'. This name has since been extended ornithologically to the accentors in general, with the exception of the two other local species with existing names and two exceptional extralimital species.

The name イワヒバリ iwa-hibari is written 岩雲雀 or 岩鷚 in Chinese characters, both meaning 'rock-lark'. Based on Chinese usage 雲雀 and 鷚 both mean 'lark', although unlike 雲雀, which is popular for writing lark names in general, 鷚 tends to be confined to compound words like イワヒバリ iwa-hibari, where it has the advantage of resulting in a two-character expression. 岩鷚 has since been borrowed into Chinese in its written form of 岩鷚, pronounced yán-liù in Chinese (also yán-liào in Taiwan), as a name for the accentors. In addition to 岩鷚, Chinese has also borrowed the Japanese name of the pipits, 田鷚 (tián-liù or tián-liào).

2. The Siberian Accentor (Prunella montanella) is known as ヤマヒバリ yama-hibari, written 山雲雀 or 山鷚 in Chinese characters, both meaning 'mountain-lark'.

3. Like the Dunnock in English, the Japanese Accentor has its own special name of カヤクグリ kaya-kuguri, written 萱潜 or 茅潜 in characters. The meaning is 'miscanthus wender', giving the impression of a bird winding its way through thickets of kaya or miscanthus grass (Miscanthus sinensis). While the Japanese Accentor normally lives in high montane pine forests, the name reflects its habit of wintering in grassy habitats. カヤ kaya in this case is used as a general word for grass.

Species names

SCIENTIFIC & WESTERN		JAPANESE		CHINESE			KOREAN
Prunella
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Prunella collaris	Alpine accentor Collared accentor Alpine Dunnock Accenteur alpin Alpenbraunelle Альпийская завирушка	イワヒバリ (岩雲雀 ~ 岩鷚) iwa-hibari 'rock-lark'	オヤマスズメ (お山雀) o-yama-suzume 'mountain sparrow'	领岩鹨 (領岩鷚) lǐng yán-liù 'collared rock-pipit'	(岩鹨) 岩鷚 yán-liào 'rock-pipit'	岩鹨 (岩鷚) yán-liù 'rock-pipit' (early ornithological) (35)	바위종다리 bawi-jongdari 'rock-lark'
Prunella montanella	Siberian accentor Mountain accentor Siberian Dunnock Accenteur montanelle Bergbraunelle Сибирская завирушка	ヤマヒバリ (山雲雀) yama-hibari 'mountain-lark'		棕眉山岩鹨 (棕眉山岩鷚) zōng-méi shān yán-liù 'reddishbrown-eyebrowed mountain rock-pipit'	棕眉山岩鷚 zōng-méi shān yán-liào 'reddishbrown-eyebrowed mountain rock-pipit'	中国山鹨 (中國山鷚) zhōng-guó shān-liù 'citrus-breasted mountain-pipit' (early ornithological) (35) 山鹨 (山鷚) shān-liù 'mountain-pipit' (35, from Zool. Nomen.)	멧종다리 me-t-jongdari 'mountain-lark'
Prunella rubida	Japanese accentor Japanese hedge sparrow Japanese Dunnock Accenteur du Japon Rötelbraunelle Японская завирушка	カヤクグリ (萱潜 ~ 茅潜) kaya-kuguri literally 'pass through miscanthus' (miscanthus = grass used for thatching or kaya; kuguru means to 'pass through')		红岩鹨 (紅岩鷚) hóng yán-liù 'red rock-pipit'			쇠바위종다리 soe-bawi-jongdari 'small rock-lark'

The name of the accentors in Japanese, イワヒバリ iwa-hibari, literally means 'rock-lark'. When written in Chinese characters it is traditionally written as 岩雲雀 or as 岩鷚. The first character, 岩, is the character for イワ iwa 'rock'. This is followed by 雲雀, literally 'cloud sparrow', or 鷚, which are alternative ways of writing ヒバリ hibari 'lark'. However, in Chinese, 鷚 (pronounced liù or in Taiwan liào) is understood to mean 'pipit'. The name イワヒバリ iwa-hibari was originally applied in Japanese to the Alpine Accentor Prunella collaris but it has since been extended to all members of the Prunellidae except Prunella montanella and Prunella rubida, which had existing names, and a couple of extralimital species.

Chinese Birds (A Tentative List of Chinese Birds) 中國鳥類（中國鳥類目錄試編） N. Gist Gee, Lacy I. Moffett, G. D. Wilder (祁天錫, 慕維德, 萬卓志), Peiping, 1927 (reprinted 1948)