Overview
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Amaurospiza is a of birds. These "seedeaters" were formerly associated with the American sparrows and placed in the Emberizidae or (in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy) the Fringillidae. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek amauros ("dusky") + spiza ("finch").
Actually, they are part of the tanager-cardinal lineage. The AOU moved this genus into the Cardinalidae family in 20081] They may actually belong in one genus with the aberrant blue "grosbeaks" of the genus Cyanocompsa. If that is correct, the Dickcissel in the genus Spiza would, quite amusingly, indeed turn out to be one of their closest living relatives.
Amaurospiza contains the following species:
- Blue Seedeater, Amaurospiza concolor
- Slate-blue Seedeater, Amaurospiza (concolor) relicta
- Carrizal Seedeater, Amaurospiza carrizalensis
- Blackish-blue Seedeater, Amaurospiza moesta
Taxonomy
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- Domain: Eukaryota
Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Animalia
Linnaeus, 1758 - animals
- Subkingdom: Bilateria
(Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians
- Branch: Deuterostomia
Grobben, 1908 - Deuterostomes
- Infrakingdom: Chordonia
(Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Phylum: Chordata
Bateson, 1885 - Chordates
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
Cuvier, 1812 - Vertebrates
- Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Auct. - Jawed Vertebrates
- Superclass: Tetrapoda
Goodrich, 1930 - Tetrapods
- Class: Aves
Linnaeus, 1758 - Birds
- Subclass: Neornithes
Gadow, 1893
- Infraclass: Neoaves
- Superorder: Passerimorphae
- Order: Passeriformes
C. Linnaeus, 1758 - Perching Birds
- Suborder: Passeri
- Parvorder: Passerida
- Superfamily: Passeroidea
- Family: Fringillidae
- Buntings, Finches
- Subfamily: Emberizinae
- Tribe: Thraupini
- Genus: Amaurospiza
- Tribe: Thraupini
- Subfamily: Emberizinae
- Family: Fringillidae
- Buntings, Finches
- Superfamily: Passeroidea
- Parvorder: Passerida
- Suborder: Passeri
- Order: Passeriformes
C. Linnaeus, 1758 - Perching Birds
- Superorder: Passerimorphae
- Infraclass: Neoaves
- Subclass: Neornithes
Gadow, 1893
- Class: Aves
Linnaeus, 1758 - Birds
- Superclass: Tetrapoda
Goodrich, 1930 - Tetrapods
- Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Auct. - Jawed Vertebrates
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
Cuvier, 1812 - Vertebrates
- Phylum: Chordata
Bateson, 1885 - Chordates
- Infrakingdom: Chordonia
(Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Branch: Deuterostomia
Grobben, 1908 - Deuterostomes
- Subkingdom: Bilateria
(Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians
- Kingdom: Animalia
Linnaeus, 1758 - animals
The Genus Amaurospiza is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 9 species and subspecies in the Genus Amaurospiza: A. aequatorialis · A. axillaris · A. carrizalensis · A. concolor (Blue Seedeater) · A. concolor aequatorialis · A. concolor concolor (Blue Seedeater) · A. concolor relicta · A. moesta (Blackish-Blue Seedeater) · A. relicta (Slate-Blue Seedeater)
References
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Sources
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