Carduelis

"Chloris (bird)" redirects here. The name Chloris was also invalidly used for the bird genus Parula.

Carduelis
The European Goldfinch belongs to a group of red- or yellow-faced species.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Fringillidae
Genus:	Carduelis (but see article text) Brisson, 1760
Species
Many, see text
Synonyms
Acanthis Borkhausen, 1797 (but see text) Acanthis Bechstein, 1802 (non Borkhausen, 1797: preoccupied) Acanthis Dumont, 1816 (non Borkhausen, 1797: preoccupied) Cannabis Blyth, 1850 Chloris Cuvier, 1800 (but see text) Chloris C.L.Brehm, 1856 (non Cuvier, 1800: preoccupied) Chloris A.E.Brehm, 1857 (non Cuvier, 1800: preoccupied) Linaria Bechstein, 1802 (non Bartram, 1791: preoccupied)

The genus Carduelis^[1][2] is a large group of birds in the finch family Fringillidae. It includes the greenfinches, redpolls, goldfinches, linnets, the twite, and the non-African siskins. No species of this group ranges far into Africa (where they are replaced by the related genus Serinus), and the centers of evolution were probably Eurasia and North America, with a secondary radiation in the Neotropics.

The interrelationship of these species is complex and contentious. It is fairly certain^[vague] that the crossbills are actually derived from proto-redpoll ancestors quite recently, and it was suggested that they should be placed in the same genus, for which the name Loxia would then have priority. On the other hand, the greenfinches (which are apparently the most distinct group) and the redpolls have themselves been separated in distinct genera which might be the best way to express both the actual evolutionary relationships and the evolutionarily significant distinctiveness of the crossbills. The molecular data indicates that the major lineages split in the Late Miocene (Tortonian, roughly 9-7 mya), but it is unable to suggest any one robust arrangement either of the major groups among each other, among the lineages of Carduelis sensu stricto, or indeed among two separate Serinus lineages (Ryan et al., 2004). As only the mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence has hitherto been studied (Arnaiz-Villena et al., 1998), more data is clearly necessary.

Here, the species of Carduelis sensu lato are listed according to current knowledge. The genus Carduelis sensu stricto could conceivably be split further, and in this case only the European Goldfinch and the Citril and Corsican Finch (newly placed in this genus) would remain in Carduelis.

Greenfinches

(Sub)Genus Chloris

• Black-headed Greenfinch, Carduelis ambigua
• European Greenfinch, Carduelis chloris
• Oriental Greenfinch, Carduelis sinica
• Vietnam Greenfinch, Carduelis monguilloti
• Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Carduelis spinoides
• The Desert Finch, Carduelis obsoleta, has recently turned out be a primitive form in this group (Zamora et al., 2006).

Redpolls

(Sub)Genus Acanthis

• Arctic Redpoll, or Hoary Redpoll, Carduelis hornemanni
• Common Redpoll, or Mealy Redpoll, Carduelis flammea
• Lesser Redpoll, Carduelis cabaret

Crossbills

(Sub)Genus Loxia

The taxonomy of Loxia is complicated, and the (sub)genus may consist of as few as three species or possibly dozens. The species given below are only those at least provisionally accepted by most scientists.

• Parrot Crossbill, Loxia pytyopsittacus
• Scottish Crossbill, Loxia scotica
• Common Crossbill or Red Crossbill, Loxia curvirostra
• Two-barred Crossbill or White-winged crossbill, Loxia leucoptera
• Hispaniolan Crossbill, Loxia megaplaga

Carduelis sensu stricto

Carduelis group

• European Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis
• Citril Finch, Carduelis citrinella - formerly Serinus citrinellus
• Corsican Finch, Carduelis corsicana - formerly Serinus corsicanus

Linaria group - linnets and Twite

• Eurasian Linnet, Carduelis cannabina
• Warsangli Linnet, Carduelis johannis
• Yemen Linnet, Carduelis yemenensis
• Twite, Carduelis flavirostris

Spinus group - American goldfinches and siskins

American goldfinches

• American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis
• Lesser Goldfinch, Carduelis psaltria
• Lawrence's Goldfinch, Carduelis lawrencei

Northern siskins

• Eurasian Siskin, or Spruce Siskin, Carduelis spinus
• Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus
• Black-capped Siskin, Carduelis atriceps
• Antillean Siskin, Carduelis dominicensis

Neotropical siskins

• Andean Siskin, Carduelis spinescens
• Black Siskin, Carduelis atrata
• Black-chinned Siskin, Carduelis barbata
• Black-headed Siskin, Carduelis notata
• Hooded Siskin, Carduelis magellanica
  • Santa Cruz Siskin, Carduelis (magellanica) santaecrucis
• Olivaceous Siskin, Carduelis olivacea
• Red Siskin, Carduelis cucullata
• Saffron Siskin, Carduelis siemiradzkii
• Thick-billed Siskin, Carduelis crassirostris
• Yellow-bellied Siskin, Carduelis xanthogastra
• Yellow-faced Siskin, Carduelis yarrellii
• Yellow-rumped Siskin, Carduelis uropygialis

Fossil species

Restoration of the extinct Carduelis aurelioi, described September 23, 2010

• Trías Greenfinch, Carduelis triasi - Holocene of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
• Slender-billed Greenfinch, Carduelis aurelioi - Holocene of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Possible Carduelis species

These species may be related to various groups or subgenera currently classified as members of Carduelis but have yet to be studied biochemically:

• Mountain Serin, Serinus estherae - (Relationships obscure).
• Tibetan Serin, Serinus thibetanus - (Sometimes Tibetan Siskin, Carduelis thibetana is used as in Grimmett et al. 1999).
• Ankober Serin, Serinus ankoberensis - (Carduelis ankoberensis on the African Bird Club list).
• the golden-winged grosbeaks, Rhynchostruthus sp. - (Relationship with Carduelis discussed in Fry et al. 2004 and Martins 1987)

Recent taxonomical changes

On December 18, 2009, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in its authority as custodian of the Clement's Checklist, made the following statement: "In accord with NACC, here we split the genus Carduelis into four genera: Carduelis (linnets and twites), Spinus (siskins), Acanthis (redpolls), and Chloris (greenfinches). Similar revisions will need to be made with respect to Carpodacus and Serinus, but we defer making those changes until a later date.".^[3] This follows a similar change that was published in the 50th supplement to the AOU Checklist of American Birds, " The subgenera Acanthis and Spinus are elevated to genera, and the genus Chloris is split from the genus Carduelis."^[4]

References

1. ^ From Latin carduus, "thistle". Thistle seeds are a favorite food of many species.
2. ^ Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio; Gomez-Prieto, Pablo; Ruiz-del-Valle, Valentín (2010). "El género Carduelis" (PDF). Ornitología Práctica 42. http://chopo.pntic.mec.es/biolmol/publicaciones/CARDU-ORNI.PRACT.pdf.  (in Spanish)
3. ^ http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/corrections/updates-corrections-dec-2009
4. ^ http://www.aou.org/checklist/suppl/AOU_checklist_suppl_50.pdf

• African Bird Club list (Passerines). http://www.africanbirdclub.org/resources/passerines_2006.doc

• Alcover, J. A.; Florit, F. 1987. Una nueva especie de Carduelis (Fringillidae) de La Palma. Vieraea 17 : 75-86

• Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Álvarez-Tejado, M.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; García-de-la-Torre, C.; Varela, P.; Recio, M. J.; Ferre. S. & Martínez-Laso, J (1998). "Phylogeny and rapid Northern and Southern Hemisphere speciation of goldfinches during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs"(PDF). Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 54(9): 1031–1041. doi:10.1007/s000180050230 PMID 9791543 . Erratum, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 55(1): 148. doi:10.1007/s000180050280 PDF fulltext

• Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Moscoso, J.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; Gonzalez, J.; Reguera, R.; Wink, M.; Serrano-Vela, J.I. (2007). "Bayesian phylogeny of Fringillinae birds: status of the singular African oriole finch Linurgus olivaceus and evolution and heterogeneity of the genus Carpodacus"(PDF). Acta Zoologica Sinica, 53(5): 826-834.

• Arnaiz-Villena, A.; Ruiz-del-Valle, V.; Moscoso, J.; Serrano-Vela, J.; Zamora, J (2007)."mtDNA phylogeny of North American Carduelis pinus group"(PDF). Ardeola, 54: 1-14.

• Fry, H.; Keith, S.; Urban, E. & Woodcock, M. 2004. The Birds of Africa, Volume 7. Christopher Helm

• Grimmett, R.; Inskipp,C. & Inskipp, T. 1999. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent . Princeton University Press

• Martins, R.P. 1987. The Golden-winged Grosbeak in North Yemen. Sandgrouse 9: 106-110

• Ryan, P.G.; Wright, D.; Oatley, G.; Wakeling, J.; Cohen, C.; Nowell, T.L.; Bowie, R.C.K.; Ward, V. & Crowe, T.M. 2004. Systematics of Serinus canaries and the status of Cape and Yellow-crowned Canaries inferred from mtDNA and morphology. Ostrich 75:288-294.

• Zamora, Jorge; Lowy, Ernesto; Ruiz-del-Valle, Valentin; Moscoso, Juan; Serrano-Vela, Juan Ignacio; Rivero-de-Aguilar, Juan; Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio (2006)."Rhodopechys obsoleta (desert finch): a pale ancestor of greenfinches (Carduelis spp.) according to molecular phylogeny"(PDF). Journal of Ornithology 147(3): 448–456. doi:10.1007/s10336-005-0036-2 (HTML abstract). Erratum, Journal of Ornithology 147(3): 511–512 doi:10.1007/s10336-006-0072-6

• Van der Meij, M.A.A.; de Bakker, M.A.G. & Bout, R.G. A phylogeny of finches and their relatives based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.

Footnotes

External links

• Carduelis videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection