Birkeland is a village and parish in Austevoll

Austevoll

Austevoll is a municipality and an archipelago in the district of Midthordland in the county of Hordaland in Western Norway, Norway. Austevoll was separated from Sund on 1 January 1886....

 municipality, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Located north of the municipality centre Storebø

Storebø

Storebø is the administrative centre and largest village in Austevoll municipality, Norway. As of January 1, 2009, its population is 1,054.. Storebø is situated on the northern part of the island Huftarøy....

, Birkeland is included in the urban area Storebø which has a population of 1,032 .

The name

The parish is named after the old farm Birkeland (Norse Birkiland) since the first church was built there. The first element is birki 'birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

forest', the last element is land n 'land; farm'.