Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch

About the Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch

The wedge-tailed grass finch (Emberizoides herbicola) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Colombia, Panama, and every mainland South American country except Chile. The wedge-tailed grass finch was formally described in 1817 with the binomial Sylvia herbicola. It was eventually reassigned to its present genus Emberizoides, which was included in a large family of Old and New World species, Emberizidae. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the wedge-tailed grass finch belonged in the tanager family Thraupidae. Some authors have treated the wedge-tailed grass finch and the lesser grass finch (E. ypiranganus) as conspecific and others treated it as conspecific with the Duida grass finch (E. duidae). A 1982 publication confirmed them as three separate species. The three are the only members of the genus Emberizoides.

The wedge-tailed grass finch has these five subspecies: E. h. lucaris Bangs, 1908 E. h. hypochondriacus Hellmayr, 1906 E. h. apurensis Gilliard, 1940 E. h. sphenurus (Vieillot, 1818) E. h. herbicola (Vieillot, 1817) The Clements taxonomy recognizes some differences within... Wikipedia →