The article deals with the Turkic origin of some East Slavic ornithonyms. Names of birds of Turkic origin can be of interest because of the light they shed on direct language contacts between the Turks and the East Slavs. The Turkic influence on the East Slavic languages has not yet been thoroughly studied, and because the names of birds relate to the ancient language layer, which shows a certain resistance to foreign language contacts, it will be of great interest to determine the intensity of Turkic influence on the East Slavic ornithonymic layer. The article describes not only literary names of birds, but also different folk names that do not change with the passage of time. The article also shows the words of Turkic origin which received secondary ornithonymic meanings. The Crimean Tatar language mostly influenced Ukrainian and Belarusian, while Russian was mainly influenced by Tatar ornithonyms. Numerous names of birds of Turkic origin are found in the East Slavic languages, but they do not make up the majority of the ornithonymic lexis.