''Dacnis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of Neotropical birds in the tanager family

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family (biology), 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 ...

. These are highly

sexually dichromatic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecious species, which consis ...

species with bright blue males and green females. They have various bill types and many of them feed on nectar.

Taxonomy and species list

The genus ''Dacnis'' was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

with the blue dacnis as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

. The name is from the

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

''daknis'', an unidentified bird from Egypt listed by

Hesychius of Alexandria Hesychius of Alexandria () was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived, probably by absorbing the works of earlier lexicographers. The ...

and

Sextus Pompeius Festus Sextus Pompeius Festus, usually known simply as Festus, was a Ancient Rome, Roman Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo (Narbonne) in Gaul. Work He made a 20-volume epitome of V ...

. This genus is placed together with the genera ''

Tesina The Tesina is an Italian river that runs in the Veneto region, in the north-east of Italy. Its source is at Cibalde, a locality in the commune of Sandrigo. It flows in the Bacchiglione river near San Pietro Intrigogna, in the territory of Vicenz ...

'' and ''

Cyanerpes The true honeycreepers form a genus ''Cyanerpes'' of small birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in the tropical New World from Mexico south to Brazil. They occur in the forest canopy, and, as the name implies, they are speciali ...

'' in the

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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Dacninae. The genus contains ten species:

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Georges Cuvier {{Thraupidae-stub