Grosbeak


Grosbeak is a form taxon containing various species of seed-eating passerine birds with large beaks. Although they all belong to the superfamily Passeroidea, these birds are not part of a natural group but rather a polyphyletic assemblage of distantly related songbirds. Some are cardueline finches in the family Fringillidae, while others are cardinals in the family Cardinalidae; one is a member of the weaver family Ploceidae. The word "grosbeak", first applied in the late 1670s, is a partial translation of the French grosbec, where gros means "large" and bec means "beak".
The following is a list of grosbeak species, arranged in groups of closely related genera. These genera are more closely related to smaller-billed birds than to other grosbeaks. Exceptions are the three genera of "typical grosbeak finches", which form a group of closest living relatives and might thus be considered the "true" grosbeaks.

Grosbeak finches

The finch family contains 13 living species named "grosbeak", which are all part of the large subfamily Carduelinae:

Typical grosbeak finches

The cardinal family of the Americas contains the following 17 "grosbeaks":
Image:Black-headed Grosbeak.jpg|right|thumb|Black-headed grosbeak

Typical cardinal-grosbeaks

Image:Cyanocompsa brissonii.jpg|right|thumb|Ultramarine grosbeak

Blue cardinal-grosbeaks

Three additional species of "grosbeaks" have long been placed in the Cardinalidae, but actually seem to be closer to the tanager family :
Finally, the weaver family contains a species called the thick-billed weaver.

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Category:Bird common names