The lesser Antillean bullfinch (''Loxigilla noctis'') is a species of

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 lightweig ...

in the 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 Neotrop ...

. It is found in

Saint Barth In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...

Saint Martin Saint Martin may refer to: People * Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), Bishop of Tours, France * Saint Martin of Braga (c. 520–580), archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal) * Pope Martin I (598–655) * Saint Mart ...

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territ ...

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two ...

, Dominica, Grenada,

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands— Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island and an Overseas department and region, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of ...

, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles,

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindi ...

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea ...

, the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are

subtropical or tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, disco ...

, and heavily degraded former forest.

Taxonomy

The lesser Antillean bullfinch was formally described by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nom ...

'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Fringilla noctis''. Linnaeus's description was primary based on "Le Père Noir" that French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published wo ...

had described and illustrated in 1760. The specific epithet ''noctis'' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''nox'' meaning "night". The Lesser Antillean bullfinch is now placed in the

genus 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 n ...

Loxigilla ''Loxigilla'' is a genus of passerine birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. The two species are both endemic to the Lesser Antilles. Taxonomy The genus ''Loxigilla'' was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The type sp ...

'' that was introduced in 1831 by René Lesson. Eight subspecies are recognised: * ''L. n. coryi'' ( Ridgway, 1898) – northwest Lesser Antilles * ''L. n. ridgwayi'' ( Cory, 1892) –

US Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...

and north Lesser Antilles * ''L. n. desiradensis'' Danforth, 1937 –

La Désirade La Désirade is an island in the French West Indies, in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean. It forms part of Guadeloupe, an overseas region of France. History Archaeological evidence has been discovered that suggests that an Amerindian po ...

(north-central Lesser Antilles) * ''L. n. dominicana'' (Ridgway, 1898) – north-central Lesser Antilles * ''L. n. noctis'' (Linnaeus, 1766) –

* ''L. n. sclateri'' Allen, JA, 1880 –

* ''L. n. crissalis'' (Ridgway, 1898) – Saint Vincent * ''L. n. grenadensis'' (Cory, 1892) – Grenada In 2006 the

Barbados bullfinch The Barbados bullfinch (''Loxigilla barbadensis'') is a seedeater bird that is found only on the Caribbean island-nation of Barbados, where it is the only endemic bird species. Taxonomy The Barbados bullfinch was previously considered a sub ...

(''Loxigilla barbadensis'') was elevated to the

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...

level; previously the species had been considered as the only non-

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

subspecies of the Lesser Antillean bullfinch.

Gallery

File:Lesser Antillean Bullfinch RWD4.jpg, Male on St. John, USVI File:Lesser Antillean Bullfinch RWD5.jpg, Male on St. John, USVI File:Lesser Antillean Bullfinch RWD2.jpg, Female on St. John, USVI File:Lesser antillean bird2 1 female.jpg, Female in St. Lucia

References

External links

*
Saint Barth Fauna & Flora
lesser Antillean bullfinch Birds of the Lesser Antilles lesser Antillean bullfinch lesser Antillean bullfinch Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Thraupidae-stub