Cuban Grassquit

About the Cuban Grassquit

The Cuban grassquit (Phonipara canora) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is endemic to Cuba. An introduced population is established on New Providence in the Bahamas. The Cuban grassquit was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Loxia canora. He based his description on the "Brown Cheeked Grosbeak" that had been described by Peter Brown in 1776. Brown's illustration was from a live bird belonging to Marmaduke Tunstall which Brown mistakenly believed had come from Mexico. It only occurs in Cuba. By 1970 the species had been placed in the genus Tiaris, but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tiaris was polyphyletic. Between 2016 and 2020 taxonomic systems moved the Cuban grassquit to the resurrected genus Phonipara that had been introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek phōnēs meaning "vocal" with the Latin parus meaning "tit". The specific epithet conora is from Latin canorus meaning "melodious".

Although traditionally placed with the buntings and New World sparrows... Wikipedia →