Recently we were asked if there was support for users who know their birds by their French names.
The main software has not been localised, user interface etc. However we have included other languages along with the taxonomy data, where present. For example, the AOU list contains both French and English names in addition to the scientific names. These can be used from the software by selecting “Preferred Language” to French in Options->Localisation. Then, if a checklist has French names available it will use them. Other taxonomies have other languages available, though they're not very discoverable from the software, unless you already selected the right taxononmy. Here's a list of the non-english languages supported by the different taxonomies:
American Ornithologists' Union: French
Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee: Portuguese
Sociedad Española de Ornitología: Spanish, Catalan
In addition to the languages available from the taxonomies, we also have a feature called “Synonym Lists”. This allows the user to create synonyms for taxa already in the system. Synonyms can be in any language, and either for full names, or for quick-codes, that are used to speed entry. It would be great to see some non-english synonym lists on the forum: http://www.bluebirdtechnology.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=19
Do you know someone who would use Bird Journal if only it was more localised? How important do you think it is to have the user interface localised?
Justin