The avian genus Quiscalus contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.
| Quiscalus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Icteridae |
| Genus: | Quiscalus Vieillot, 1816 |
| Type species | |
| Gracula quiscula[1] Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
| |
The genus was named and described by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.[3][4] The genus name comes from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle.[5] From where Linnaeus obtained the word is uncertain, but it may come from the Taíno word quisqueya, meaning "mother of all lands", for the island of Hispaniola.[6]
The genus contains six extant species and one extinct species:[7]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Quiscalus major | Boat-tailed grackle | Florida and the coastal Southeastern United States |
 | Quiscalus quiscula | Common grackle | North America |
 | Quiscalus mexicanus | Great-tailed grackle | northern regions of South America, through the western and central United states with vagrants occasionally into Canada |
 |
†Quiscalus palustris | Slender-billed grackle | endemic of central Mexico, namely Valley of Mexico and Toluca Valley (extinct around 1910) |
.jpg) | Quiscalus nicaraguensis | Nicaraguan grackle | Nicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica |
.jpg) | Quiscalus niger | Greater Antillean grackle | the Greater Antilles |
 | Quiscalus lugubris | Carib grackle | Colombia east to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil |
References
edit- ↑ "Icteridae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ↑ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 36.
- ↑ Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 41.
- ↑ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 187.
- ↑ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 109.
- ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 328–329. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
External links
edit
- Quiscalus videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
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