''Spinus'' 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 ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

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. It contains the North and South American siskins and goldfinches, as well as two Old World species.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Spinus'' was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist

Carl Ludwig Koch Carl Ludwig Koch (21 September 1778 – 23 August 1857) was a German entomologist and arachnologist. He was responsible for classifying a great number of spiders, including the Brazilian whiteknee tarantula and common house spider. He was born ...

with 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 ...

by tautonomy as ''Fringilla spinus''

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1758, the

Eurasian siskin The Eurasian siskin (''Spinus spinus'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is also called the European siskin, common siskin or just siskin. Other (archaic) names include ''black-headed goldfinch'', ''barley bird'' an ...

. The genus 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 ...

''spínos'', a name for a now-unidentifiable bird. All of the species in the genus, except for the Tibetan serin, were formerly included in the genus ''

Carduelis The genus ''Carduelis'' is a group of birds in the finch family (biology), family Fringillidae. The genus ''Carduelis'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by Tautonym, tautonomy based on Carl Linnaeus's Spe ...

''. They were moved to the resurrected genus ''Spinus'' based on

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 ...

studies of

mitochondrial A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used ...

and nuclear DNA sequences. The Tibetan serin was formerly placed in the genus ''

Serinus ''Serinus'' is a genus of small birds in the finch family Fringillidae found in West Asia, Europe and Africa. The birds usually have some yellow in their plumage. The genus was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch. Its n ...

''. The

and the Tibetan serin are the only species from the Old World included in the group. The Tibetan serin is an

outgroup Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology) In social psychology and sociology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By cont ...

within ''Spinus'', having been the first to diverge. The remainder of the genus can be divided into three monophyletic clades: the North American goldfinches ( Lawrence's, lesser, and American); the so-called North American siskins (

Eurasian Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents dates back to antiq ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

, Antillean, and black-capped); and the South American siskins (the remaining 12 species). The radiation of South American siskins was rapid, and was originally thought to have occurred around 3.5 million years ago due to a range expansion associated with the

Great American Interchange The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which land ...

and contingent upon the spread of mesothermal plants from the Rocky Mountains to the Andes. More recent work suggests the radiation occurred much later, within the last 1 million years, and speciation events may have been initiated by the climactic variations of the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. The

hooded siskin The hooded siskin (''Spinus magellanicus'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family (biology), family (Fringillidae), native to South America. It belongs to the putative clade of neotropical siskins in the genus ''Spinus (genus), Spinus sen ...

may be

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 ...

Ecology

''Spinus'' finches are

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother was ...

and may breed and forage in small groups. In the non-breeding season, these species generally disperse away from the breeding grounds and small flocks roam nomadically in search of food; these flocks may be of one species or mixed with other species in the genus. Some species, such as the

pine siskin The pine siskin (''Spinus pinus'') is a North American bird in the finch family. It is a migratory bird with an extremely sporadic winter range. Taxonomy The pine siskin was formally described in 1810 by the American ornithologist Alexander W ...

and

thick-billed siskin The thick-billed siskin (''Spinus crassirostris'') is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. Found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and subtropical or tropical h ...

, are considered irruptive. Like most other members of

Carduelinae The cardueline finches are a subfamily, Carduelinae, one of three subfamilies of the finch family Fringillidae, the others being the Fringillinae and the Euphoniinae. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now included in this subfamily. Except for the ...

, but unusually amongst

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5,00 ...

s, members of ''Spinus'' are primarily granivorous, but may occasionally supplement their diet with insects or fruit. Most species eat a variety of small seeds, especially from

aster Aster or ASTER may refer to: Biology * ''Aster'' (genus), a genus of flowering plants ** List of ''Aster'' synonyms, other genera formerly included in ''Aster'' and still called asters in English * Aster (cell biology), a cellular structure shap ...

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es,

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

s, and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

es.

Conservation

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

lists 17 species as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

, two as vulnerable ( saffron siskin and yellow-faced siskin), and one, the red siskin, as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. Species in this clade are threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and capture for the

cage-bird trade Wildlife trade refers to the exchange of products derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tis ...

Species

The genus contains 20 species:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinus (genus) Fringillidae Bird genera