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Quiscalus

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Quiscalus
Common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Icteridae
Genus: Quiscalus
Vieillot, 1816
Subspecies
  • Quiscalus major
  • Quiscalus quiscula
  • Quiscalus mexicanus
  • Quiscalus palustris (extinct)
  • Quiscalus nicaraguensis
  • Quiscalus niger
  • Quiscalus lugubris

The avian genus Quiscalus contains six of the ten species of grackle, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.

The genus was named and described by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[1] The type species was subsequently designated as the common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.[2][3] The genus name comes from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle.[4] From where Linnaeus obtained the word is uncertain but it may come from the Carib word Quisqueya meaning "mother of all lands", for the island of Hispaniola.[5]

The genus contains six species:[6]

Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Quiscalus major Boat-tailed grackle Florida
Quiscalus quiscula Common grackle North America.
Quiscalus mexicanus Great-tailed grackle northwest Venezuela and western Colombia and Ecuador in the south to Minnesota in the north, to Oregon, Idaho, and California in the west, to Florida in the east, with vagrants occurring as far north as southern Canada
Quiscalus nicaraguensis Nicaraguan grackle Nicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica
Quiscalus niger Greater Antillean grackle Greater Antilles
Quiscalus lugubris Carib grackle Colombia east to Venezuela and north-eastern Brazil

Slender-billed grackle, Quiscalus palustris (1910)

References

  1. ^ Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Elementaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 36.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. Volume 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 187. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. Volume 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 109. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  5. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 328-329. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  6. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 September 2019.