| Yellow-shouldered grassquit | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Thraupidae |
| Genus: | Loxipasser Bryant, 1866 |
| Species: | L. anoxanthus |
| Binomial name | |
| Loxipasser anoxanthus (Gosse, 1847) | |
 | |
| Synonyms | |
Spermophila anoxantha (protonym) | |
Theyellow-shouldered grassquit (Loxipasser anoxanthus) is a species of bird in the tanager familyThraupidae that isendemic toJamaica. It is the only member of the genusLoxipasser. Its naturalhabitats aresubtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moistmontane forest, and heavily degraded former forest.
The yellow-shouldered grassquit wasformally described in 1847 by the English naturalistPhilip Henry Gosse as the "Yellow-back finch" in his bookThe Birds of Jamaica. Gosse coined thebinomial nameSpermophila anoxantha.[2] The species was moved to the genusLoxipasser by the naturalistHenry Bryant in 1866.[3] The genus name combines the wordLoxia introduced byCarl Linnaeus in 1758 for the crossbills withPasser introduced byMathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 for the sparrows. The specific epithetanoxanthus is formed from theAncient Greekanō meaning "above" or "upperparts" withxanthos meaning "yellow".[4] The yellow-shouldered grassquit ismonotypic: nosubspecies are recognised.[5]
Although the yellow-shouldered grassquit was traditionally placed with the buntings andNew World sparrows in the familyEmberizidae,[6]molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that this species is a member of thesubfamily Coerebinae within the tanager familyThraupidae.[7]
