Blue Grosbeak
Passerina caerulea
Silhouette: Jonah Duckles · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyCardinalidae (Cardinals and Allies)
- GenusPasserina (North American Buntings)
- SpeciesPasserina caerulea (Blue Grosbeak)
About the Blue Grosbeak
The blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) is a medium-sized North American passerine bird in the cardinal family Cardinalidae. It is mainly migratory, wintering in Central America and breeding in northern Mexico and the southern United States. The male is blue with two brown wing bars. The female is mainly brown with scattered blue feathers on the upperparts and two brown wing bars.
The blue grosbeak was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia caerulea. The specific epithet caerulea is the Latin word for "blue", "azure-blue", "sky-blue" or "dark-blue". Linnaeus based his own description on the "blew gross-beak" described and illustrated by Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The book had been published in 1729–1732. Catesby gave the location as Carolina and Linnaeus specified America. The type location is now restricted to South Carolina.
Some taxonomists placed the blue grosbeak in its own monotypic genus Guiraca but in 2001 a molecular phylogenetic study of mitochondrial DNA sequences found that the blue grosbeak, in spite... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Blue Grosbeak in Biotopo Cerro Cahuí
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Biotopo Cerro Cahuí
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Passerina cyanea
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Granatellus sallaei
Blue Bunting
Cyanocompsa parellina
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Habia rubica
Scarlet Tanager
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Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Pheucticus ludovicianus
Dickcissel
Spiza americana
Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
Blue-black Grosbeak
Cyanocompsa cyanoides
Rose-throated Tanager
Piranga roseogularis
Magnolia Warbler
Setophaga magnolia
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.