Spindalis

Spindalis
File:Western spindalis (Spindalis zena pretrei) male.JPG
Western spindalis (Spindalis zena)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Emberizoidea
Family:	Spindalidae Barker, Burns, Klicka, Lanyon, & Lovette, 2013
Genus:	Spindalis Jardine & Selby, 1837
Type species
Spindalis bilineatus Jardine & Selby, 1837=Tanagra nigricephala Jameson, 1835 Jamaican spindalis

Spindalis is a genus consisting of four non-migratory species of bird. It is the only genus in the family Spindalidae. The species are mostly endemic to the West Indies; exceptions include populations of western spindalises on Cozumel Island, off the Yucatán Peninsula's east coast, and in extreme southeastern Florida. The species were traditionally considered aberrant members of the tanager family Thraupidae. Taxonomic studies recover them as a sister group to the Puerto Rican tanager (family Nesospingidae), and some group Spindalidae and Nesospingidae within the Phaenicophilidae.

Males are characterized by bright plumage while females are duller and have a different coloration. The nests are cup-shaped.

Taxonomy

The genus Spindalis was introduced in 1837 by the naturalists William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby to accommodate a single species, Spindalis bilineatus Jardine and Selby. This name is now considered a junior synonym of Tanagra nigricephala Jameson, 1835, the Jamaican spindalis, which becomes the type species by monotypy.

The genus contains four species:

Genus Spindalis – Jardine & Selby, 1837 – four species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Hispaniolan spindalis File:Hispaniolan Spindalis, Kenscoff, Haiti 1.jpg	Spindalis dominicensis (Bryant, H, 1867)	Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Map of range	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Jamaican spindalis File:Jamaican Spindalis (Spindalis nigricephala) (8082131069).jpg Male {{{image2-alt}}} Female	Spindalis nigricephala (Jameson, 1835)	Jamaica Map of range	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Puerto Rican spindalis File:Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager (male) (5403225223).jpg Male {{{image2-alt}}} Female	Spindalis portoricensis (Bryant, H, 1866)	Puerto Rico Map of range	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Western spindalis File:Spindalis zena pretrei, Ciego de Avila Province, Cuba 1 (cropped).jpg Male {{{image2-alt}}} Female	Spindalis zena (Linnaeus, 1758) Five subspecies S. z. zena S. z. townsendi S. z. pretrei S. z. salvini S. z. benedicti	southeastern Florida and the western Caribbean (Cozumel, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands) Map of range	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

Taxonomy

Historically, the genus consisted of a single polytypic species, Spindalis zena (with the common name of stripe-headed tanager), with eight recognized subspecies—S. z. townsendi and S. z. zena from the Bahamas, S. z. pretrei from Cuba, S. z. salvini from Grand Cayman, S. z. dominicensis from Hispaniola and Gonâve Island, S. z. portoricensis from Puerto Rico, S. z. nigreciphala from Jamaica, and S. z. benedicti from Cozumel Island. In 1997, based primarily on morphological and vocalization differences, three of the subspecies (portoricensis, dominicensis and nigricephala) were elevated to species status. S. zena remained a polytypic species with five recognized subspecies—S. z. pretrei, S. z. salvini, S. z. benedicti, S. z. townsendi, and S. z. zena.