Great Pampa-Finch

About the Great Pampa-Finch

The Pampa finch (Embernagra platensis), also known as the great Pampa-finch, is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The Pampa finch was formally described in 1789 with the binomial Emberiza platensis. It was later declared the type species for the genus Embernagra that had been erected in 1831.

The Pampa finch's further taxonomy is complicated and not fully resolved. Some early twentieth century authors placed the genus Embernagra in the finch family Carduelidae. Others later reassigned it to what was then a large family of Old and New World species, Emberizidae. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the Pampa finch belonged in the tanager family Thraupidae. The Pampa finch shares genus Embernagra with the serra finch (E. longicauda), which some systems call the pale-throated Pampa-finch.

Most taxonomic systems assign these four subspecies to the Pampa finch: E. p. platensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789) E. p. olivascens d'Orbigny, 1839 E. p. catamarcana Nores, 1986 E. p. gossei Chubb, C, 1918 However, as of late 2025 the Clements taxonomy includes... Wikipedia →