Hispaniolan euphonia

Hispaniolan euphonia
Male in the Dominican Republic
Female in the Dominican Republic
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Subfamily: Euphoniinae
Genus: Chlorophonia
Species:
C. musica
Binomial name
Chlorophonia musica
(Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Synonyms

See text

The Hispaniolan euphonia (Chlorophonia musica) is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae, the finches and euphonias. It is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

The Hispaniolan euphonia has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the manakins in the genus Pipra and coined the binomial Pipra musica.[3] The specific epithet is from Latin musicus meaning "musical" or "musician".[4] Gmelin based his account on "L'organiste", a bird from Saint-Domingue, a French colony on the island of Hispaniola, that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath the Comte de Buffon in his multi-volume work, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[5] A hand-colored engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet was published separately to accompany Buffon's text.[6] The species was eventually reassigned to genus Euphonia that had been erected in 1806.[7][8]

For a time the Hispaniolan euphonia, the golden-rumped euphonia (now C. cyanocephala), and the elegant euphonia (now C. elegantissima) were treated as a single species called the blue-hooded euphonia. They were separated by 1998 and formed a superspecies.[8] Following further studies, in the early 2020s those three species were reassigned by most taxonomic systems to their present genus Chlorophonia that had been erected in 1851.[9][10][11] The first version of AviList (2025) also places the Hispaniolan euphonia in Chlorophonia. However, as of 2025 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World retains it in Euphonia.[12][13]

Genera Euphonia and Chlorophonia were long placed in the family Thraupidae, the "true" tanagers. Multiple studies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries resulted in their being reassigned to their present place in the family Fringillidae.[8][14]

At the time Euphonia musica became Chlorophonia musica and for a few years thereafter it bore the English name "Antillean euphonia" and contained three subspecies. Beginning in 2016 the three were split into the Hispaniolan euphonia (C. musica sensu stricto), the Puerto Rican euphonia (C. sclateri), and the Lesser Antillean euphonia (C. flavifrons) and the splits were widely adopted by 2023.[15][16][17][18]

The Hispaniolan euphonia is monotypic.[2]

Description

The Hispaniolan euphonia is about 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) long. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have a tawny yellow forehead that is separated from the forecrown by a narrow blackish strip. Their crown and nape are sky blue that extends forward from the latter under the ear coverts. The rest of their head and their throat are blackish violet. Their back and wing coverts are black with a dark blue gloss and their rump and uppertail coverts are rich tawny yellow. Their tail is dull black. Their flight feathers are dull black with thin medium blue edges. Their underparts are rich tawny yellow. Adult females have a deep yellow forehead with a dusky strip behind it. Their crown and nape are turquoise that curves forward like the male's. The rest of their head is mostly olive green with a yellow chin and throat. Their back, scapulars, wing coverts, and uppertail coverts are olive green with a slight metallic bluish green gloss. Their rump is yellowish olive green. Their tail is blackish with wide olive green feather edges. Their flight feathers are mostly blackish with thin olive green edges on the primaries and wide ones on the secondaries. Their breast is deep olive yellow and their belly, vent, and undertail coverts pure yellow. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a black maxilla, a blue-gray mandible with a black tip, and dark gray to black legs and feet.[19][20]

Distribution and habitat

The Hispaniolan euphonia has a disjunct distribution across the island of Hispaniola in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and is also found on the small satellite Gonâve Island. It inhabits a variety of landscapes including the interior and edges of evergreen, deciduous, and pine forests and also nearby disturbed areas and shade coffee plantations. In all areas it favors trees with mistletoe (Loranthaceae).[19][20] It ranges from sea level to the island's highest elevations.[19]

Behavior

Movement

The Hispaniolan euphonia is a resident species.[8]

Feeding

The Hispaniolan euphonia feeds almost exclusively on small berries, especially those of mistletoe. It forages in pairs and occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks.[19]

Breeding

The Hispaniolan euphonia's breeding season has not been fully defined, but the species may breed at any time of year. Its nest has not been described and the clutch size, incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.[19]

Vocalization

The Hispaniolan euphonia's song is "a trilling, tinkling tuc-tuc-tuc..., punctuated with sharp whistles, often in [a] long rambling discourse for up to 20 minutes with little or no pause". Its calls include "a plaintive whistle" often followed by "a soft tuk-tuk, ee-oo-tuk-tuk, or i-i-i-u-u-…..tuk, tuk".[19]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Hispaniolan euphonia as being of Least Concern. Its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. "Loss of forest habitat, primarily for conversion to agriculture, for timber and for fuel is thought to be the primary threat to the species, however it is able to use a variety of vegetated habitats and the impact on the population is likely to be minor." It is also illegally trapped for the pet trade but apparently at only a low level.[1] It is considered common[1] to locally common[20]. It occurs in national parks in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 BirdLife International (2025). "Hispaniolan Euphonia Euphonia musica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2025 e.T103868399A274694530. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2025-2.RLTS.T103868399A274694530.en. Retrieved 31 March 2026.
  2. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (March 2025). "Finches, euphonias, longspurs, Thrush-tanager". IOC World Bird List. v 15.1. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  3. ↑ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae: secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 1004.
  4. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 262. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. ↑ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1778). "L'Organiste". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 4. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 290–292.
  6. ↑ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de; Martinet, François-Nicolas; Daubenton, Edme-Louis; Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "L'Organiste de St Dominigue". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Vol. 9. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 809, Fig. 1.
  7. ↑ Desmarest, Anselme-Gaëtan (1805). Histoire naturelle des Tangaras, des Manakins et des Todiers (in French). Retrieved March 31, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. p. 584.
  9. ↑ R. Terry Chesser, Shawn M. Billerman, Kevin J. Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Blanca E. Hernández-Baños, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Nicholas A. Mason, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., Douglas F. Stotz, and Kevin Winker. "Sixty-second supplement to the American Ornithological Society s Check-list of North American Birds". American Ornithology 2021, vol. 138:1-18 retrieved February 2, 2026
  10. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "IOC World Bird List". v 11.2. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  11. ↑ Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2021. retrieved August 30, 2021
  12. ↑ AviList Core Team. 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025 retrieved June 11, 2025
  13. ↑ HBW and BirdLife International (2025). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 10. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy#birdlife-s-taxonomic-checklist retrieved October 12, 2025
  14. ↑ Richard C. Banks, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., James D. Rising, and Douglas F. Stotz. "Forty-fourth supplement to the American Ornithologist's Union Check-list of North American Birds". The Auk 2003, vol. 120:923–931 retrieved March 31, 2026
  15. ↑ BirdLife International (2016) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. [old] Version 9. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_90.zip
  16. ↑ R. Terry Chesser, Shawn M. Billerman, Kevin J. Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Blanca E. Hernández-Baños, Rosa Alicia Jiménez, Andrew W. Kratter, Nicholas A. Mason, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and Kevin Winker. "Sixty-fourth supplement to the American Ornithological Society s Check-list of North American Birds". Ornithology 2023, vol. 140:1-11 retrieved July 6, 2023
  17. ↑ Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
  18. ↑ Clements, J. F., P.C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved October 28, 2023
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Greeney, H. F. (2023). Hispaniolan Euphonia (Chlorophonia musica), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. Gerbracht, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.anteup2.01 retrieved March 31, 2026
  20. 1 2 3 Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan; Rafaele, Janice (2003). Birds of the West Indies. Princeton Field Guides. Princeton University Press. pp. Plate 80. ISBN 0-691-11319-X.
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