The red-cowled cardinal (''Paroaria dominicana'') is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the tanager

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

( Thraupidae). It is not very closely related to the cardinals proper ( Cardinalidae). It is

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 ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It occurs in a wide range of dry to semi-humid open to semi-open habitats in north-eastern Brazil, especially the

Caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

region. It has been introduced (probably by means of escaped caged individuals) to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and São Paulo, being locally common even in urban areas.José Felipe Monteiro Pereira, ''Aves e Pássaros Comuns do Rio de Janeiro'', Rio de Janeiro, Technical Books, 2008, , pg.138.

References

External links

Red-cowled Cardinal videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

VIREO ttp://vireo.acnatsci.org/species_image.php?species=Paroaria+dominicana Photo-High Res--(Close-up)

red-cowled cardinal The red-cowled cardinal (''Paroaria dominicana'') is a bird species in the tanager family (biology), family (Thraupidae). It is not very closely related to the cardinals proper (Cardinalidae). It is endemic to Brazil. It occurs in a wide range o ...

Birds of the Caatinga Endemic birds of Brazil

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{thraupidae-stub