Euphoniinae is a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

finches 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 ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

. It contains two

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

, ''

Euphonia Euphonias are members of the genus ''Euphonia'', a group of Neotropical birds in the finch family. They and the chlorophonias comprise the subfamily Euphoniinae. The genus name is of Greek origin and refers to the birds' pleasing song, meanin ...

'' and ''

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 ' ...

''. The two genera were at one time included in 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 ...

. In a large

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 finch family using

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

and nuclear DNA sequences published in 2012, Zuccon and colleagues found that the only ''Chlorophonia'' species included in their analysis, 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 ...

, was nested within the ''Euphonia''. This indicated that the genus ''Euphonia'' was

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 ...

. A study with more species would be necessary to resolve the taxonomy of the subfamily.

Species list

SUBFAMILY EUPHONIINAE

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4290480 Fringillidae Bird subfamilies *