Blue-black Grosbeak

About the Blue-black Grosbeak

The blue-black grosbeak (Cyanoloxia cyanoides) is a species of songbird in the family Cardinalidae. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society places this species in genus Cyanoloxia. In addition, in 2018 the committee split the eastern lowland population into a new species, the Amazonian grosbeak (Cyanoloxia rothschildii).

The blue-black grosbeak is found in the family Cardinalidae, within the order Passeriformes. Although it is still sometimes placed in the genus Cyanocompsa, it was found that this genus is paraphyletic and contains members of the genus Amaurospiza and Cyanoloxia.

There are three subspecies in this taxa: Cyanoloxia cyanoides cyanoides, Cyanoloxia cyanoides caerulescens, and Cyanoloxia cyanoides concreta. Although these three subspecies are very similar, there are slight differences between them. Males all have dark blue plumage, however, C.c. concreta has the darkest of the three and is also the largest. Next, in terms of size and coloration, is C.c. caerulescens, followed by C.c. cyanoides, which has the smallest size and brightest plumage.

Originally there was a fourth subspecies, C.c. rothschildii... Wikipedia →