Violaceous Euphonia

About the Violaceous Euphonia

The violaceous euphonia (Euphonia violacea) is a small passerine bird in the true finch family Fringillidae. It is widely distributed in eastern South America. The violaceous euphonia was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae based on a specimen in the collection of Adolf Frederick of Sweden. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla violacea. The specific epithet is from Latin violaceus meaning "violet-coloured". Linnaeus specified the type locality as Calidis regionibus ("hot countries") but in 1902 Hans von Berlepsch and Ernst Hartert designated the locality as Suriname. The violaceous euphonia is now one of 25 Neotropical species placed in the genus Euphonia that was introduced in 1806 by the French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest.

Three subspecies are recognised: E. v. rodwayi (Penard, TE, 1919) – Venezuela and Trinidad E. v. violacea (Linnaeus, 1758) – the Guianas and north Brazil E. v. aurantiicollis Bertoni, AW, 1901 – east Brazil to north Paraguay and northeast Argentina Adult violaceous euphonias are 11.4 cm long and... Wikipedia →