Melopyrrha is a genus of passerine birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is made up of four extant species endemic to the Greater Antilles, along with 1 possibly extinct species from the island of Saint Kitts in the Lesser Antilles.
The genus Melopyrrha was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.[1] The type species was later specified by George Robert Gray as the Cuban bullfinch.[2] The name combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" with the genus Pyrrhula introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson for the bullfinches.[3] This genus was formerly monospecific containing only the Cuban bullfinch.[4] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus Loxigilla was polyphyletic and that the Greater Antillean bullfinch, Puerto Rican bullfinch and Cuban bullfinch formed a clade.[5] The three species were therefore placed together in Melopyrrha.[6] In 2021, the possibly extinct St. Kitts bullfinch (M. grandis) was split from M. portoricensis as a distinct species.[7]
Although these species were traditionally placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae,[4] molecular genetic studies have shown that they are members of the tanager family Thraupidae and belong to the subfamily Coerebinae that also contains Darwin's finches.[5]
The five species in the genus are:[6]
| Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melopyrrha portoricensis | Puerto Rico. | ||
| Melopyrrha grandis | Saint Kitts. | ||
| Melopyrrha violacea | Bahamas, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as surrounding islands), Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. | ||
| Melopyrrha taylori | Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. | ||
| Melopyrrha nigra | Cuba. | ||