''Porphyrospiza'' is a

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 ...

of seed-eating South American birds 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 ...

Taxonomy and species list

The genus ''Porphyrospiza'' was introduced in 1873 by the English ornithologists

Philip Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological ...

and

Osbert Salvin Osbert Salvin FRS (25 February 1835 – 1 June 1898) was an English naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist best known for co-authoring ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' (1879–1915) with Frederick DuCane Godman. This was a 52 volume encyc ...

to accommodate the

blue finch The blue finch or yellow-billed blue finch (''Porphyrospiza caerulescens'') is a species of small bird. Although it was long classified in the bunting family Emberizidae, or the cardinal family Cardinalidae, more recent molecular studies have sho ...

. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''porphura'' meaning "purple" with ''spiza'' meaning "finch". The genus formerly included only a single species, the blue finch. The band-tailed sierra finch and the carbonated sierra finch were formerly placed in the genus ''

Phrygilus ''Phrygilus'' is a genus of mainly Andean seed-eating tanagers commonly known as sierra finches. Phrygilos means finch in Ancient Greek. Traditionally classified in the bunting and American sparrow family Emberizidae, more recent studies have s ...

''. They were moved to ''Porphyrospiza'' when a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that ''Phrygilus'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

and that these two species were closely related to the blue finch. The genus now contains three species:

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Philip Sclater Taxa named by Osbert Salvin {{Thraupidae-stub