| Cuban grassquit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male at Canberra Walk In Aviary, Australia | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Thraupidae |
| Genus: | Phonipara Bonaparte, 1850 |
| Species: | P. canora |
| Binomial name | |
| Phonipara canora (Gmelin, 1789) | |
 | |
| Synonyms | |
Loxia canora (protonym) | |
TheCuban grassquit (Phonipara canora) is a small bird in thetanager familyThraupidae. It isendemic toCuba.
Its naturalhabitats aresubtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moistmontane forest, subtropical or tropical dryshrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.
The Cuban grassquit wasformally described in 1789 by the German naturalistJohann Friedrich Gmelin under thebinomial nameLoxia canora.[2] He based his description on the "Brown Cheeked Grosbeak" that had been described byPeter Brown in 1776. Brown's illustration was from a live bird belonging toMarmaduke Tunstall which Brown mistakenly believed had come from Mexico. It only occurs in Cuba.[3][4] This species was formerly placed in the genusTiaris,[4] but amolecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found thatTiaris waspolyphyletic.[5] In the resulting reorganization, the Cuban grassquit was moved to the resurrected genusPhonipara that had been introduced in 1850 by the French naturalistCharles Lucien Bonaparte.[6][7][8] The genus name combines theAncient Greekphōnēs meaning "vocal" with theLatinparus meaning "tit". The specific epithetconora is from Latincanorus meaning "melodious".[9] The Cuban grassquit ismonotypic: nosubspecies are recognised.[8]
Although traditionally placed with the buntings andNew World sparrows in the familyEmberizidae,[4] molecular genetic studies have shown that the Cuban grassquit is a member of thesubfamily Coerebinae within the tanager familyThraupidae.[7]
