Blue-crowned Chlorophonia

About the Blue-crowned Chlorophonia

The blue-crowned chlorophonia (Chlorophonia occipitalis) is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae, the finches and euphonias. It is found in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. The blue-crowned chlorophonia was originally described in 1847 with the binomial Euphonia occipitalis. It was eventually reassigned to genus Chlorophonia that had been erected in 1851. The genus Chlorophonia was long placed in the family Thraupidae, the "true" tanagers. Multiple studies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries resulted in its being reassigned to its present place in the family Fringillidae.

The blue-crowned chlorophonia and the golden-browed chlorophonia (C. callophrys) were for a time treated as conspecific and now form a superspecies. The blue-crowned chlorophonia is monotypic. The blue-crowned chlorophonia is a chunky, short-tailed, stubby-billed bird. It is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 25 to 27.5 g (0.88 to 0.97 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have a mostly shiny emerald-green head with a circular turquoise-blue patch in the center of the crown. Their throat and upper breast... Wikipedia →