Blue-black Grassquit
Volatinia jacarina
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyThraupidae (Tanagers and Allies)
- GenusVolatinia
- SpeciesVolatinia jacarina (Blue-black Grassquit)
About the Blue-black Grassquit
The blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina) is a small Neotropical bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Mexico, every Central American country, every mainland South American country, in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Grenada.
The blue-black grassquit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tanagra jacarina. Linnaeus based his description on the "Jacarni" that was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. The type locality is eastern Brazil. The specific epithet jacarina is derived from the Tupi language and was used for a type of finch. The blue-black grassquit is now the only species in the genus Volatinia that was introduced in 1850 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name is a diminutive of the Latin volatus meaning "flying".
Within the tanager family Thraupidae the blue-black grassquit is in the subfamily Tachyphoninae and is a member of a clade that contains the genera Conothraupis and Creurgops. It was formerly placed with the buntings in the... Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Tikal National Park
Black-throated Shrike-Tanager
Lanio aurantius
Morelet's Seedeater
Sporophila morelleti
Black-headed Saltator
Saltator atriceps
Gray-headed Tanager
Eucometis penicillata
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Cyanerpes cyaneus
Yellow-winged Tanager
Thraupis abbas
Green Honeycreeper
Chlorophanes spiza
Blue-gray Tanager
Thraupis episcopus
Bananaquit
Coereba flaveola
Golden-hooded Tanager
Stilpnia larvata
Buff-throated Saltator
Saltator maximus
Thick-billed Seed-Finch
Sporophila funerea
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there
Parks Where Found
Quick answers
What are the chances of seeing a Blue-black Grassquit in Tikal National Park?
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-black Grassquit sighting in Tikal National Park, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data.
When is the best time to see Blue-black Grassquit in Tikal National Park?
December has the highest sighting rate for Blue-black Grassquit in Tikal National Park in our monthly data.