Birds Guide

Evening Grosbeak

Grosbeak is the name given to several species of seed-eating passerine bird with large bills, in the finch and cardinal families.

The following is a list of grosbeak species - note that the groups of species are not each other's closest relatives - they share the name grosbeak purely because of morphological similarity.

The finch family, Fringillidae contains the following 11 extant species (plus two species of Grosbeak Canary):

• The São Tomé Grosbeak, Neospiza concolor, a critically endangered restricted-range endemic found only in forests on the island of São Tomé off the West African coast, believed extinct until rediscovered in 1996
  The Golden-winged Grosbeak, Rynchostruthus socotranus, a localised species found in northern Somalia, mountains of south-west Arabia and on the island of Socotra
  The Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator, a pan-Holarctic pine forest species
  The two Nearctic species in the genus Coccothraustes (which also contains a Palearctic species, the Hawfinch C. coccothraustes):
  • Evening Grosbeak C. vespertinus
    Hooded Grosbeak C. abeillei
• The two species in the East Asian genus Eophona:
  • Japanese Grosbeak E. personata
    Chinese (Yellow-Billed) Grosbeak E. migratoria
• The four species in the South Asian genus Mycerobas:
  • Black-and-yellow Grosbeak M. icterioides
    Collared Grosbeak M. affinis
    Spot-winged Grosbeak M. melanozanthos
    White-winged Grosbeak M. carnipes

The cardinal family, Cardinalidae, of the Americas contains the following 17 extant species:

• The Red-and-black Grosbeak, Periporphyrus erythromelas of northern South America
• Two species in the Neotropical genus Saltator (all other species in this genus are referred to as saltators):
  • Slate-coloured Grosbeak, S. groseus
    Black-throated Grosbeak, S. fuliginosus
• The two species in the Neotropical genus Caryothraustes:
  • Black-faced Grosbeak C. poliogaster
    Yellow-green Grosbeak C. canadensis
• The Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak Parkerthraustes humeralis of South America
  The Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Rhodothraupis celaeno, a restricted-range endemic found only in eastern Mexico
• The six species in the genus Pheucticus
  • Yellow Grosbeak P. chrysopeplus
    Golden-bellied Grosbeak P. chrysogaster
    Black-thighed Grosbeak P. tibialis, a restricted-range endemic found only in the highlands of Costa Rica and Panama
    Black-backed Grosbeak P. aureoventris
    Rose-breasted Grosbeak P. ludovicianus
    Black-headed Grosbeak P. melanocephalus
• Two species in the Neotropical genus Cyanocampsa (this genus also contains the Blue Bunting C. parellina):
  • Ultramarine Grosbeak C. brissonii
    Blue-black Grosbeak C. cyanoides
• The Glaucous-blue Grosbeak Cyanoloxia glaucocaerulea of eastern South America
  The Blue Grosbeak Guiraca caerulea

In addition, there are two extinct species with the name grosbeak: the Bonin Grosbeak Chaunoproctus ferreorostris (a finch), found only on the Ogasawara Islands, which was last recorded in c. 1832, and the Kona Grosbeak or Grosbeak Finch, a Hawaiian honeycreeper, last recorded in c. 1896.

Finally, the weaver family (Ploceidae) contains a species called the Grosbeak Weaver.