Euphonias are members of the

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 ...

''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 biogeogra ...

birds in the

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

family. They and the

chlorophonia ''Chlorophonia'' is a genus of finches in the family Fringillidae. The Chlorophonias are Endemism, endemic to the Neotropics. They are small, mostly bright green birds that inhabit humid forests and nearby habitats, especially in highlands. T ...

s comprise the subfamily

Euphoniinae Euphoniinae is a subfamily (biology), subfamily of finches endemism in birds, endemic to the Neotropical zoogeographical region, Neotropics. It contains two genus (biology), genera, ''Euphonia'' and ''Chlorophonia''. The two genera were at one ...

. 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 ...

). Some species may also eat some insects. Euphonias were once considered members of 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 ...

. A molecular

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

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

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

. 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 the father of Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest. Career Desmarest was a disciple of Georges Cu ...

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 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 ...

. 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 ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...

. They suggested that the Antillean euphonia (''Cyanophonia musica'') should be the

. The proposed genus would contain three species: the Antillean euphonia, the

golden-rumped euphonia The golden-rumped euphonia (''Chlorophonia cyanocephala'') is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae, formerly placed in the Thraupidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Su ...

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; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

Species list

The genus contains 25 species: The

black-throated euphonia The black-throated euphonia is a bird in the Fringillidae, or finch family. It is known only by a single specimen in the British Natural History Museum with the type locality given as Rio de Janeiro, and was originally described as ''Euphonia v ...

("''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