Cuban grassquit

Cuban grassquit
Male at Canberra Walk In Aviary, Australia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Phonipara Bonaparte, 1850
Species:	P. canora
Binomial name
Phonipara canora (Gmelin, 1789)
Synonyms
Loxia canora (protonym) Tiaris canora

The Cuban grassquit (Phonipara canora) is a small bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is endemic to Cuba.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.

Taxonomy

The Cuban grassquit was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Loxia canora.[2] He based his description on the "Brown Cheeked Grosbeak" that had been described by Peter Brown in 1776. Brown's illustration was from a live bird belonging to Marmaduke Tunstall which Brown mistakenly believed had come from Mexico. It only occurs in Cuba.[3][4] This species was formerly placed in the genus Tiaris,[4] but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tiaris was polyphyletic.[5] In the resulting reorganization, the Cuban grassquit was moved to the resurrected genus Phonipara that had been introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.[6][7][8] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek phōnēs meaning "vocal" with the Latin parus meaning "tit". The specific epithet conora is from Latin canorus meaning "melodious".[9] The Cuban grassquit is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[8]

Although traditionally placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae,[4] molecular genetic studies have shown that the Cuban grassquit is a member of the subfamily Coerebinae within the tanager family Thraupidae.[7]

References

1. BirdLife International (2018). "Phonipara canora". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22723595A131889418. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22723595A131889418.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 858.
3. Brown, Peter (1776). Nouvelles illustrations de zoologie : contenant cinquante planches enlumineés d'oiseaux curieux, et qui non etés jamais descrits, et quelques de quadrupedes, de reptiles et d'insectes, avec de courtes descriptions systematiques (in French and English). London: B. White. p. 56, Plate 24 fig. 1.
4. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 155.
5. Burns, K.J.; Shultz, A.J.; Title, P.O.; Mason, N.A.; Barker, F.K.; Klicka, J.; Lanyon, S.M.; Lovette, I.J. (2014). "Phylogenetics and diversification of tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 75: 41–77. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.006. PMID 24583021.
6. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1850). "Zoologie. Sur plusieurs genres nouveaux de Passereaux". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. 31: 423–424 [424].
7. Burns, K.J.; Unitt, P.; Mason, N.A. (2016). "A genus-level classification of the family Thraupidae (Class Aves: Order Passeriformes)". Zootaxa. 4088 (3): 329–354. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4088.3.2. PMID 27394344.
8. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2020). "Tanagers and allies". IOC World Bird List Version 10.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
9. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 89, 304. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

External links

• Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the Cuban grassquit