Euphonias are members of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Euphonia'', a group of

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

birds in the

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

family. They and the

chlorophonia ''Chlorophonia'' is a genus of finches in the family Fringillidae. The Chlorophonias are endemic to the Neotropics. They are small, mostly bright green birds that inhabit humid forests and nearby habitats, especially in highlands. The genus ' ...

s comprise the subfamily

Euphoniinae Euphoniinae is a subfamily of finches endemic to the Neotropics. It contains two genera, ''Euphonia'' and ''Chlorophonia''. The two genera were at one time included in the tanager family Thraupidae. In a large phylogenetic study of the finch fa ...

. The genus name is of Greek origin and refers to the birds' pleasing song, meaning "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" or "good" and ''phōnē'' means "sound", hence "of good sound"). Most male euphonias are dark metallic blue above and bright yellow below. Many have contrasting pale foreheads and white undertails. Some have light blue patches on the head and/or orangish underparts. Females much more plain, predominantly olive-green all over. They range in overall length from . They eat small fruit and berries, particularly mistletoe (

Loranthaceae Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are ''Nuytsia floribunda'' (the W ...

). Some species may also eat some insects. Euphonias were once considered members of the tanager family,

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12% of the Neotropica ...

. A molecular

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

study of the

family Fringillidae published in 2012 included 9 species from the genus ''Euphonia'' and a single species from the genus ''Chlorophonia'', the

blue-naped chlorophonia The blue-naped chlorophonia (''Chlorophonia cyanea'') is a colourful South American species of bird in the family Fringillidae; it was formerly placed in the Thraupidae. It is generally fairly common. Description A small, plump, mainly green bir ...

. The resulting cladogram showed the blue-naped chlorophonia nested within the ''Euphonia'' clade implying that the genus ''Euphonia'' is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

. The genus was introduced in 1806 by the French zoologist

Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French Zoology, zoologist and author. He was the son of Nicolas Desmarest and father of Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest. Desmarest was a disciple of Georges Cuvier and Alex ...

in his ''Histoire naturelle des tangaras, des manakins et des todiers'' with the

white-vented euphonia The white-vented euphonia (''Euphonia minuta'') is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae. Description ''Euphonia minuta'' measures approximately . Both sexes have a whitish midbelly and crissum. Males are blue-black above with a yellow f ...

as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. A taxonomic analysis published in 2020 found that the genus ''Euphonia'' was

with respect to ''Chlorophonia''. To resolve the paraphyly the authors of the study proposed the resurrection of the genus ''Cyanophonia'' that had been introduced in 1851 by

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

. They suggested that the

Antillean euphonia The Antillean euphonia (''Chlorophonia musica'') is a bird species in the finch family, Fringillidae (formerly in Thraupidae). It is found in all the main islands of the Lesser Antilles, as well as Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and ...

(''Cyanophonia musica'') should be the

. The proposed genus would contain three species: the Antillean euphonia, the golden-rumped euphonia and the

elegant euphonia The elegant or blue-hooded euphonia (''Chlorophonia elegantissima'') is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. It was formerly classified i ...

. An alternative and simpler way to resolve the paraphyly would be move the three species from ''Euphonia'' into ''Chlorophonia'', which has been followed by the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

Species list

The genus contains 24 species: The black-throated euphonia ("''Euphonia vittata''") is now thought to be a hybrid between the chestnut-bellied euphonia and the orange-bellied euphonia.

References

External links

Euphonia videos, photos and sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection Euphoniinae Bird genera {{fringillidae-stub